Ghost of Me
by au.stories
Summary: "Frustrating, isn't it, when the dead just won't stay dead." she spat right back at him. He blinked and she was gone, vanished into thin air. Maybe Aunt Jenna isn't as gone as everyone likes to think. Picks up during 3x14; 'Ghost World' hasn't happened.
1. The Ball

**AN: I know it's been a long time, but I reworked the story a bit and reuploaded the chapters again. From chapter 1-7 nothing in the story itself changed. I took down chapter 8 and replaced it with the new version - slowing the story down a bit.**

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Jenna Sommers was walking up to the Mikaelson's Mansion. She had been intrigued by this ominous invitation left on the door step this morning. Technically she wasn't invited, but that didn't stop her. Not these days. A lot of chatter had been going on at home about this evening and in particular about someone named Esther. What kind of aunt would she be if she didn't at least check on her niece once in a while? She had left too many things to Elena before, gave her too much freedom and look where that got her. Look where it got the both of them.

The door of the mansion opened and Jenna slipped in with the couple waiting at the entrance. The house looked big from the outside, but the inside sure made it look huge. Everything was bright and open and filled with lovely music from a string quartette. Jenna navigated with ease between the people passing her with a smile on her face. This was her new self. Always with a smile on her lips, because she knew at any moment something could happen, that would wipe it right off again. Now that she knew about the evil and dark things this place really had to offer, it seemed that this was the only way to get through on her own. Because that is what she was now. She was left on her own. _Alone_.

Once more the big double door was opened by the two men standing on either side of it. Jenna instinctively looked over and saw her niece enter. She looked so beautiful in her dress with her hair and make-up. Jenna couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. She missed having Elena around her. Sure she had lied to her, left her in the dark and chose only to reveal the truth to her in the very last moment when it was almost too late. Who was she kidding, it was too late. A fact she was reminded of everyday since the night of the sacrifice. Yet she wasn't angry with Elena. Deep down she knew Elena only wanted to keep her safe. Jenna only wished her niece and the others would've had a little more faith in her. Maybe then she wouldn't be stuck in this mess.

It didn't take very long before Elena ended up with a Salvatore on each side of her. Like a moth to a flame, Jenna thought, although she wasn't sure if Elena was the flame or the moth in this analogy.

For most of the evening Jenna followed Elena around. Occasionally she would stop and listen to the gossip exchanged between the guests. Another habit she had picked up over the last few months. Out of the corner of her eye Jenna saw Elena heading for the stairs. She looked nervous about something. After a few turns Elena was joined by Elijah, but Jenna was too far away to hear what they were saying and by the time she caught up to her niece she was already knocking on a door. Jenna had a bad feeling about this. There was nothing she could do of course, but she could always keep an eye on Elena. Or so she thought.

"Well, this is odd." She tried to enter the room by imagining herself inside of it. Usually that was all it took, but not this time. Something or maybe someone was stopping her from entering. Frustrated Jenna sighed and walked back to the ball room and watched the people dance. She felt so out of place between all the impeccable dressed people who kept dancing around in circles. She needed to get out of here. She came here tonight out of curiosity, but curiosity was slowly turning into frustration and worry. She didn't want to feel sorry for herself tonight.

It was quiet outside. Jenna wandered around aimlessly until she heard a familiar bright voice which could only belong to Caroline Forbes. Jenna turned the next corner and spotted Caroline standing beside a horse with the one person she had been avoiding all evening.

_Klaus._ Jenna did not like him one bit. He was the one who had grabbed her, fed her his stupid vampire blood and killed her…twice! He killed Elena, made Stefan lose his humanity, turned Tyler and has now succeeded in bringing his family back together. Jenna was brought back from her anger fueled thoughts when Caroline's voice drifted over to where she stood. She hadn't heard their entire conversation, but Caroline didn't look very pleased.

"…but I also like people and they actually like me. I'll be inside." Caroline turned around and left Klaus standing beside the horses. He watched her go inside, but didn't make a move to follow.

"Ouch!" Jenna chuckled and was about to leave again when Klaus turned around.

He looked into her direction. It couldn't be a coincidence. People did not look at her anymore, through her yes, but not at her. Now she didn't know what to do. So she did the first thing that popped into her head. Still smiling she raised her right hand and cautiously waved in Klaus' general direction.

He frowned. Her smile dropped off her face. He saw her.


	2. The Encounter 1

**2**

Jenna froze.

Fight or flight. Apparently this response still works even in the afterlife. Or maybe she simply wasn't a ghost long enough to shed this kind of behavior. Had she really been thinking clearly at this moment, she would've just vanished into thin air instead of staring into her killer's confused face.

There was nothing she hadn't tried in order to get noticed over the past months. She spoke to people; screamed at the top of her lungs at them, but she received nothing but silence in return. She even learned how to move certain objects around. A ghost should be able to do that, Jenna decided and spent hours concentrating on a coffee mug left on the kitchen counter until she finally moved it an inch. So far no one really noticed the changes around the house, though. Everyone was so busy with the newest disaster that they didn't pay enough attention to their surroundings and Jenna couldn't really blame them for it.

Touching people was not impossible, but again to no avail. The first time Jenna tried to make herself known to Elena was by touching her niece's shoulder. And for just one second, when Elena stopped and turned, she thought she actually did it. But in the next moment Elena turned back around and shrugged it off. Jenna tried it several more times throughout the following days with similar results before giving up on it altogether.

Besides, it was rather creepy getting touched by a ghost unknowingly, Jenna admitted. Of course being followed around by one wasn't exactly making the creepy stalker meter go any lower either.

It's not as if she was deliberately spying on people. Jenna simply liked to be around her family. After all it's not like she had any choice in this matter. She may be able to control which place she would like to be ignored at next, but she couldn't leave them alone. Leaving Mystic Falls was not an option and Jenna had learned this little fact the hard way in form of a very unpleasant 'make me want to stab my eyes out' kind of headache. What was the point in being dead when pain was still an issue, Jenna remembered thinking angrily. Something kept her here in her hometown, close to her family and their crazy lives.

Of course when she finally did catch a break, it would be with him: a cold, calculating, thousand-year-old hybrid.

While Jenna was lost in her thoughts once again, Klaus let his eyes wander freely over her form for a moment. She looked like the trusting Aunt Jenna he remembered, who had been tricked into an early death. She even wore the same clothes she'd been wearing when he drove a stake through her heart. You could still see the blood and the whole the stake left in her shirt. Just what was she doing here now?

Klaus caught the change in Jenna's posture. Her eyes turned slowly to the left and then her body followed. She wanted to leave, but Klaus was having none of that. By the time Jenna had turned around, he stood in front of her, effectively blocking her escape route.

"What's going on here? How are you here?" His voice was low and filled with unspoken threats. Jenna had no doubt in her mind that he was getting ready to kill her all over again, should she give him a reason.

"I…I was just..." She stuttered and stood there looking like a deer caught in headlights while trying to avoid his gaze. Words failed her. Though she felt the need to reply to his commanding voice, her brain couldn't come up with a satisfying response.

How and why was she here? She asked herself these questions ever since she got up off the ground at the Quarry and saw herself lying staked on a makeshift altar while all hell broke loose around her.

Now that is something you don't get to watch every day. She had front row seats to that night's performance of magic, death, betrayal and literal heartbreak. Jenna just stood there unmoving and watched Klaus kill Elena. She wanted to help her, do something, anything. But it appeared as if she had been rooted to where she stood with no chance to save her niece. It wasn't until much later that she realized that she couldn't have done anything one way or another.

She was supposed to be dead, buried six feet under and either going on to heaven or hell, be reborn or simply rot away in the ground. She wasn't picky. Of course she couldn't for sure exclude this from being some kind of hell.

"I was quite sure I had killed you." Again Jenna was affected by the hybrid's low and threatening tone. Except this time it produced a different reaction inside of her. This one sentence finally unfroze Jenna's brain. The anger rising inside of her made her raise her head up to meet the hybrid's cold eyes.

"I expect you to answer when I ask you a question. Now, don't be rude." Klaus looked at her expectant and barely noticed the lights illuminating the garden behind them starting to flicker.

That's right. He had killed her. Tricked her, turned her and staked her. He had done all these things to her, but what was he going to do next. She was already dead. He couldn't hurt her now.

"Frustrating, isn't it, when the dead just won't _stay_ dead." Jenna spat right back at him and even managed to give him a mocking look. Her harsh tone surprised Klaus. His body felt like it had been hit with a light electric current. No harm done, but no apparent reason for it either. He blinked and she was gone, vanished into thin air.

**xxxxx**

It wasn't long afterwards that Kol found his big brother standing on his own outside. Klaus didn't move and kept staring at seemingly nothing in particular.

"What are you doing standing there like a lost puppy? Mother wants us all to gather. It's time for a toast." And off he was again with his arrogant little grin. Kol didn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary, Klaus thought to himself, surely he would have made a comment about it otherwise.

Jenna had left him feeling uneasy. Too many questions were racing through his head and he wouldn't get quick answers to them. It seemed that he just couldn't win. There would always be something new trying to ruin his plans or threaten his success. Just for once he would like for everything to go according to plan. Was that really too much to ask for?

He took one deep breath and took the first step towards the door. Dealing with Jenna Sommer's return to the world of the living would have to wait until later. For now he had a toast to get to.


	3. The Encounter 2

**3**

The only sound that could be heard throughout the Mikaelson's Mansion was the sound the pencil made while it was dragged over paper. Klaus had been sitting in the living room for a while now. The unexpected meeting with Miss Sommers, whose eyes were currently staring up at him, was still occupying his thoughts. He couldn't explain why she had been there or what it meant. By now he was almost certain he imagined the whole thing.

"You have been sitting here doodling all morning" Kol snatched the paper out of his brother's hand and plopped down in the armchair opposite him, "Now let's have a look."

Kol studied the drawing. It showed a young woman, who he didn't recognize from anywhere. Then again, he had spent the last hundred years in a coffin and didn't really know a lot of people beside his family here.

"Who is this fine young lady your drawing? I don't remember seeing her at the ball yesterday. I would've expected to see your blonde dance partner from last night." Klaus shot his younger brother an annoyed look. Things didn't go very smoothly with Caroline last night. He didn't need to be reminded of that.

"It really is none of your business." He kept his voice low on purpose, but Kol wasn't easily intimidated. "I'm bored, Nick. Let's go out and have some fun. Maybe meet up with your young lady friend and have a bite to eat." Kol shot Klaus a wicked grin.

"I'm not stopping you from having fun." Klaus had wanted his family back together. Now he had to live with it, as annoying as that may be.

"Come on, go out with me. You know, you did stick a dagger in my heart. I think you should at least try to make it up to me." Oh why not, thought Klaus, he could humor his brother for a little while. He rose from the couch and Kol knew he had won, "I'll be waiting for you outside."

Klaus waited until Kol had left the room, before he grabbed the painting and walked over to the fire place. He ripped the page with Jenna's face out. Without another glance, he let the drawing fall into the open fire.

**xxxxx**

Jenna sat on a bench by the Quarry and stared at the water. Even if she would still need simple things like sleep, she probably wouldn't have slept a wink after last night's events. She had been sitting here all night. Time no longer held the same meaning to her as before. An hour or a day, it was pretty much all the same now. It's the only reason why she hasn't lost it over the past months. She knew it's been months, it just didn't feel that way.

Jenna hadn't meant to come here, but for some reason, whenever she tried to flee from one place, she would always end up back here. Something always pulled her back to the place she died. She figured this to be another one of those 'ghostly rules', as she likes to call it. By now she had a whole mental list of them. You'd expect to at least find one other ghost roaming around Mystic Falls with the amount of deaths in this town, but so far she hadn't met any. That's why last night had been equally surprising and unsettling. Why, of all people, would Klaus be able to see her?

By the time Jenna was done staring at the water, night had fallen over Mystic Falls again. It took her all day to make up her mind about finding Klaus. He didn't scare her, but she couldn't image him as someone who would help her simply out of the goodness of his heart. Then again, this was her only chance, she had to take it.

Once she was focused enough, Jenna tried to imagine Klaus in her mind. It was harder getting to someone specific when you tried it for the first time. To help her speed up the process, Jenna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Klaus' threatening stare from the previous night began to form in her mind and all her thoughts turned on him.

**xxxxx**

The sudden noise surrounding her was the first indication she was no longer at the Quarry. Jenna slowly opened her eyes and realized she was at the Grill. It was not the place she expected to end up. A quick glance around the room revealed Klaus at the bar with another man, drinking. He had been at the ball too. Jenna didn't know his name, but he must be a member of the Mikaelson's Family, she thought.

Jenna hid behind a nearby wall. Klaus hadn't noticed her yet and she didn't particularly like being here. She tried to avoid large crowds whenever she could. It is one thing to be alone when you're alone, but it takes on a whole new level of depressing when you're alone in a room filled with people.

Tonight didn't seem to be a good time for a ghost-hybrid chat, she decided and was about to leave again when she spotted Alaric over by the pool table with another woman. Her name was Meredith Fell, Jenna knew that much. It stung surprisingly little to see him with her. There was a slight burning in her chest, but it just wasn't strong enough. Her death had hit Alaric pretty hard and she saw him on more than one occasion drink his sorrows away. She couldn't help but feel a little ashamed that she couldn't be equally distraught about losing him. Everything around her appeared mostly dull. As if there was an invisible layer spread out over her eyes. The world was displayed in faded colors. Noises around her or people's voices were all slightly off, as if she would be listening through a wall. She was still able to feel, but other than frustration and occasional fear, nothing really stuck out to her. Not even seeing her past love cozying up to another woman.

Well, that's not entirely true, Jenna thought. Last night Klaus actually made her feel something other than frustration or self pity. He had made her angry. It had been quite refreshing.

The sound of high heels clacking caught Jenna's attention and she turned her head just in time to see Klaus follow Caroline outside. Now that was a conversation she really had no interest in. Deciding there was no point in staying any longer, Jenna took one last look back at Alaric, but he was no longer at the pool table. Instead the hybrid's drinking buddy tried his luck with Meredith. That was until Alaric came back and daggered the vampire.

Not being able to easily operate the objects that surrounded her really frustrated Jenna at times. Instead of following the pair and the daggered vampire outside, Jenna was faced with a closed door. She still wasn't skillful enough when it came to quick location changes. That's why when she finally caught up to them, it was already over. The only ones left were Klaus and his now undaggered companion. Klaus grabbed him by the arm and stopped him from leaving. The younger of the two did not look happy about that.

"What are you doing, Nik? They just tried to kill me, kill us. Let go of me." Kol demanded and broke free from his brother's grip.

"Something you still have to learn about these people, Kol, is that they'll never learn unless you give them a reason to." Klaus explained.

"What do you have in mind?" Kol was intrigued. As was Jenna, who in her haze to follow the action forgot that she could actually be spotted by one of the ancient creatures standing not far away from her.

"I'm thinking" he put his hand on Kol's shoulder and squeezed it, "that you're going on a little road trip." Klaus smiled at his brother's confused face. He knew living in peace with two Salvatores was next to impossible. That's why he made sure to always have a plan B.

"But first we need to find Elijah and pay our mother a visit, don't you think?" Kol nodded and they were gone. Whatever was going on here, Jenna wasn't particularly interested in getting in the middle of it. She sighed and turned around; ready to walk away, but again she was stopped by a certain hybrid, much like the last time.

"Enjoying the show?" Klaus smiled. This time Jenna didn't freeze up. Here was her chance, but before she could say a single word, Klaus continued, "What are Damon and Stefan Salvatore up to? And why would they be working with my mother?"

"How would I know that?" Jenna couldn't quite follow his train of thought. She had been so busy summoning up the courage to find him, she didn't pay much attention to whatever plot was afoot today.

"I don't know what's going on here. I only came here to talk to you." Klaus flinched and brought a hand up to his chest. He seems too out of breath for a vampire, Jenna thought.

"I would love to continue this chat, but there are more pressing matters I need to deal with." He said through gritted teeth and was gone again, leaving Jenna standing there on her own, more confused than ever.


	4. Leverage 1

**4**

Elena protested when Damon closed the door to Alaric's apartment in her face without letting her glimpse inside. On the other side of the door, Damon waited and listened to her retreating footsteps.

"Walking down the stairs…opening front door…and she's gone." Damon snapped his fingers at Alaric and he continued to cut up the old Wickery Bridge sign with an electric saw into neat little pieces, twelve of them to be exact.

Jenna had been patiently sitting at Alaric's kitchen counter for a couple of hours now, just watching and listening. It had been a week since her last encounter with Klaus. Whenever she tried to work her ghostly magic, it ended in a splitting headache. The only explanation she could come up with was that Klaus was currently not in Mystic Falls. In fact the entire Mikaelson Family, save for Rebekha, seemed to have left town. Apparently it had something to do with what happened after Alaric had stabbed Klaus' little brother, Kol.

It hasn't been boring, though. A lot of things had been going on over this past week. Jenna wasn't actually there to see them all happen with her own eyes, but the people residing in Mystic Falls were only too happy to chat about it. The most interesting tidbit by far, however, has been something about the old Wickery Bridge. Now Jenna didn't get all of the details on what exactly happened, but somehow Alaric and Damon ended up with a way to kill the Originals. She thought this was maybe something she should take an interest in, seeing how they're trying to kill her one connection to this world. Not that she had been able to make any use of this connection so far.

Alaric finished his first stake and put it aside, before getting started on the next one. Watching three men whittle wasn't very entertaining, but she had a mission now: find out how they plan on killing Klaus.

Twelve stakes meant they had twelve opportunities. There were five originals left, so the odds were in their favor. The execution seemed to be the bigger problem. Not many plans seem to ever really work when it came to get rid of an original vampire. Not the ones made by a Salvatore anyway.

While Stefan explained to his brother that the stakes needed to be much sharper, Jenna felt a tug at her heart, alerting her that something was wrong. She had experienced something similar before when Elena was about to be driven off Wickery Bridge by Stefan or at least that's what he wanted her to believe. There were one or two other times it happened and Jenna thought it had to do with what Elena was feeling then. She had been terrified, scared for her life. Somehow, if the feelings were strong enough, Jenna would sense it.

Elena was at the door not long ago, she couldn't have gotten herself into a life threatening situation this fast, Jenna thought to herself. The uneasy feeling inside of her grew with every passing second. If it wasn't Elena, then this meant it could only be the one other family member she had left.

"Jeremy" Jenna's urgent whisper echoed through the apartment and for just a moment all three men looked up and threw each other questioning looks. They hadn't heard anything, yet something had made them react. Damon shrugged and went back to whittling, the other two followed. Jenna vanished out of Alaric's apartment, leaving the three men to their task, without any of them being the wiser.

**xxxxxx**

For the first few seconds Jenna felt disoriented. Being back at the Mikaelson's Mansion was not where she had expected to end up. But there, on the other side of the room, lay Jeremy, unconscious. The bad feeling had been right once again. Jenna ran over to her nephew and knelt down, stroking over his hair, trying to get a life sign out of him.

"Jeremy, wake up." She didn't care that he couldn't hear her, even if he would've been conscious. He didn't appear to have any serious injuries besides the bump at the back of his head. She just needed him to be okay.

"I was hoping you'd show up." Klaus startled Jenna, who spun around and gasped.

"What did you do to him?" Jenna slowly got up of the floor and took a couple of steps towards Klaus, "Let him go." Jenna tried to sound demanding, but Klaus merely smiled at her, completely ignoring her request. Instead he launched into his own little prepared speech.

"I had a bit time to think about what it means that you're here. Now, I don't really care about the how and why, but I'm very much interested in finding out what you can do for me."

"You want me to help you?" She hadn't expected that. He stole her line. "What could I possibly do for you?" Somehow she was a little scared to ask this.

"I'm so glad you asked." Klaus smiled and moved behind Jeremy. "You see, things haven't really been going my way lately and I think it's time this changes." He grabbed Jeremy and dragged him over to a nearby chair. Once Jeremy was seated, Klaus made a point of removing his magic bring-me-back-to-life ring and watched Jenna watch him put it into his jacket.

"Please don't hurt him." Jenna almost pleaded.

"Oh, I'm afraid that won't be possible. You see, your friends just can't keep the peace and the only way to make them learn is to threaten or kill one of their own." While picking up some rope to tie Jeremy to the chair with, he turned back slightly and added, "You know, kind of like when I took you."

Now he was just trying to rile her up. Jenna couldn't help the sharp intake of breath, though. The anger was building inside of her again. Talk about unresolved issues. Klaus, enjoying the effect his words had on the ghost before him, continued. "Did you know that I only had to kill you, because Damon Salvatore freed my other choice for the ritual? Don't get me wrong, you would've still been turned into a vampire, but you would've lived." He guessed by the surprised look on Jenna's face that she hadn't known about that, "You were merely my backup. Leave it to a Salvatore to screw things up, am I right?"

Jenna couldn't tell anymore if what he was saying was the truth or if he was lying to her. Clearly he was going somewhere with this. The only part she heard, however, was that she could still be alive today. Of course she could still be alive today when she hadn't gone outside house, when she had known how to defend herself against monsters, when she hadn't become Elena and Jeremy's guardian. The words kept ringing through her head. She could still be alive. As a vampire, but still, she imagined it to be better than what she was now.

"Come on, love, don't look so sad." Klaus finished tying Jeremy to the chair. "See, this is the part where you can get back at them. I imagine you have seen and heard a lot of things lately. You certainly seemed interested in your ex-boyfriend and his new lady friend the other night." Again he laughed and Jenna got more uncomfortable by the second. "Yes, I saw you there hiding behind a wall, all googly eyed."

Jenna followed his every movement as he continued, "This could work in your favor, too. I could take care of Alaric's new friend or generally ensure your precious family stays safe. All you need to do is tell me what they're planning." There it is, Jenna thought, he wanted her to be his little spy.

"No! You can't really think that I would do that." She almost laughed right into his face. It was a ridiculous idea. Why would she help him and betray her own family and friends like that in the process. Even if she would get something in return, something told her not to trust him on this promise.

"I think you should take some time to…" Before Klaus could finish his sentence Jenna interrupted him, "I said no!" Lights started to flicker around the room. Again with the lights, Jenna thought. Could she be any more of a ghostly cliché?

"That's unfortunate, Jenna. We would've made a wonderful team. As a result, I think it's time for another one of Elena Gilbert's loved ones to die." Klaus yanked Jeremy's head to the side and took on his true form. Veins popped out under his eyes, his fangs extended and his eyes turned yellow. Jenna's eyes widened once she realized what would come next. Klaus bit down into Jeremy's neck and Jenna screamed out. She knew he was playing her. There was still a chance he wouldn't actually kill Jeremy. Maybe it was just a show, but damn it was a good one.

"Stop! I know what their plan is. I'll tell you, just please let him go." And before she really knew what was happening, Jenna was telling the hybrid all about the stakes made out of white oak. Word after word came out of her mouth and she couldn't stop herself. The only thing on her mind was to save Jeremy.

Klaus stopped, his face returned to normal and he let go of Jeremy. "See, you're helping already, team mate." Jenna heard Klaus leave the room, but her eyes were glued to Jeremy's bloody neck. What was she to do now?


	5. Leverage 2

**5**

With a groan Jenna pushed the drawer shut, mentally complimenting herself on being able to work objects without losing too much time. She began to think anger was the key to make things happen easier. Or maybe she just wasn't over thinking her actions anymore.

The answer to Jenna's question was as easy as it was difficult. She had to step up her game. Klaus had been kind enough to demonstrate to her how it's done. He had played her to get information using Jeremy as leverage. Jenna knew he would not stop continuing to do so until Jeremy was dead or hopefully rescued in time. She wasn't holding her breath for the latter. Klaus had more plans for Jeremy and it was on her now to take charge and save her nephew. She couldn't leave it up to the Salvatore Brothers to save the day. Maybe she was a bit biased about this matter, but she had witnessed enough recent epic failures of theirs to allow herself such judgment. After all, it was the actions of a certain Damon Salvatore that had indirectly let to her untimely death, unless Klaus had been lying about that.

She had been naïve to think everything would just work itself out. Though she really couldn't be blamed for recent events, she couldn't help but feel as if she may have made it worse. Klaus now knew about the stakes. She really shouldn't have told him about that, but she couldn't bear seeing Jeremy hurt. Now she needed to find a way to restore some balance to this fight.

Jenna sighed. She stood in the middle of Alaric's apartment and slowly spun around in circles. Humans are creatures of habit. Jenna had spent enough time with Alaric to get to know him and learn about his habits. Still, she couldn't find what she was looking for. She saw how Alaric made one of the twelve stakes and she saw that he put it off to the side. He must have kept it.

If you have a weapon that can kill one of the oldest vampires in the world, you wouldn't just leave it on the coffee table. She could just toss the place, but she didn't have much time until someone would come back. Her first guess was the bed, but nothing was underneath it except for dust. A better guess was his dresser. She found weapons hidden in there, just not the one she was looking for.

Third time's the charm, Jenna thought to herself when her eyes came to rest on Alaric's bookshelf. She couldn't help but smile at the thought of him hiding something behind a book. It seemed like something he would do. Personally, she always preferred the lose floorboard in her room. While Jenna got to work on the bookshelf, she wondered if someone had found her hiding place by now. She did it with the dresser; she could do it with the books. One deep breath and Jenna focused on the book in front of her. Relieve flooded through her when she touched the book and was actually able to remove it enough to see that there was nothing behind it. Only thirty-something more books to go.

**xxxxx**

It was late when the door flew open and Damon followed a very grim looking Alaric through the door, who made a bee line for the bookshelf. "I put it right here behind the books."

"Isn't hiding something behind a book a little too obvious?" Damon wondered out loud. Normally Alaric would've had a snappy answer for that, but not after seeing what was behind the books. More precisely after seeing what was _not_ behind the books. "It's gone. I know for a fact that I put it here, but the stake is gone."

"Who could've taken it, Ric?" Damon was getting angry. They needed that stake and they needed it now. Klaus was holding Jeremy hostage and Elena was freaking out about it. The hunter and the vampire were both feverishly searching for lucky stake number twelve, while pulling out every single book until the shelf was completely empty.

"I'm the only one who knew about it, Damon." Alaric picked one of the books up and threw it across the room. It landed not far from Jenna's feet. She couldn't help the laugh escaping her lips. Their panicked expressions were far too entertaining. It seemed to her that Klaus hadn't lost any time in using his newly found information. Studying the stake in her hand, a small part of Jenna wondered why the stake was suddenly invisible with her, but the rest of her was pretty proud of her accomplishment. She was getting really good at this.

"It doesn't add up. First Klaus somehow finds out about the stakes and now one of them is missing. Who is behind this? What are we missing?" Damon couldn't believe what was happening here. Why kept all his well laid out plans failing?

Again, she felt a little bad about giving up the information, but somehow she started to like the idea of finishing off that stupid little hybrid herself. He kept pushing her and something inside of her made her want to push back.

**xxxxxx**

Klaus was sitting on the couch again, drawing. It calmed him and gave him a chance to think about his next move. He still needed to get Bonnie on board with his plan to unlink himself from his siblings. Thanks to Jeremy it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

"Did you miss me?" Suddenly Jenna appeared and leaned over him from behind, taking a look at the painting in his hand. If she had startled him, he wasn't showing it. Instead he kept drawing as if it was normal for her to appear out of thin air.

"If you're not here to bring me new information, I really have no time for you now." It had been intriguing to him at first, but Klaus was getting bored with this. He had gotten what he wanted and was on his way to get everything back on track. If it was up to him, Jenna could just go away now. Of course she had other plans.

"No, no information for you. I'm here to settle a score, unless you'd like to help me with my little situation." He stopped drawing and tilted his hand a little to the side to look at Jenna.

"What situation?" He asked her.

Jenna rolled her eyes, "Hello…I'm a ghost and I'm stuck. This is very frustrating and I'm sick and tired of it. For whatever reason, it's you who can see me, so I need you to help me."

"I'm really not interested in doing that." No surprise there, Jenna thought.

"I was afraid you wouldn't agree without a little demonstration of power first." Jenna lifted herself off the couch and started walking around it with Klaus' watchful eyes on her every move, "You'll be flattered to hear that I learned something from you the other day. You know, when you bit my nephew in the neck."

"Whatever it is you're planning…" Jenna stopped him by lifting her index finger and moving it over to her ear, indicating for him to listen, "Did you hear that? I think someone's coming." Jenna smiled and disappeared again.

Klaus listened for a moment and got up off the couch. The footsteps got louder and as he turned around to see who it was, he saw Caroline stop in the doorway.

"Caroline." He couldn't help saying her name with a smile in his voice, "To what do I own this pleasure?"

"Save it, creep! I came here, just as you asked. What do I have to do to get Jeremy back?" Caroline did not look happy. She had debated with herself if she should really come here. Maybe she should've told someone about this.

"What are you talking about? I didn't ask you to come here." But as he said it, it clicked in his head and a smiling Jenna came up behind Caroline with a stake in her hand.


	6. Caroline

**6**

_It will not kill her._

Jenna repeated the words in her head like a mantra. She just had to pull herself together, just this once. Klaus needed to know she wasn't bluffing; she needed to become a real threat. Otherwise how was she to get him to help her and leave Jeremy alone?

_It will not kill her. It will not kill her._

Caroline had unknowingly chosen the short stick and would play the bait. Jenna was no monster and she had no intention of becoming one either, but she couldn't deny the truth in Klaus' logic. He threatened the people Elena cared about and in return Elena tried to do everything she could to keep everyone save. That's how he got what he wanted and Jenna figured it could work for her just as well. The problem was in finding the right person. Klaus obviously cared a great deal about his family and she had no doubt in her mind that he would try to save any one of them. But then again, he had stuck daggers into their hearts and let them play 'sleeping beauty' for centuries.

Maybe he just doesn't let it show, Jenna thought, or maybe he really was a monster through and through.

At first Jenna thought that Rebekha would be her best shot. She had stuck with her brother through a lot of tough times, as far as Jenna could tell. Out of all his siblings, he would probably miss her the most. There was just one problem with this choice. Jenna only had one stake, one shot at getting it through Klaus' heart, should it come this far. She couldn't risk having to get her point across and loose her only weapon in the process.

Fortunately for Jenna, she remembered the night she was first seen by Klaus. He had been outside with Caroline during his family's ball. It brought a smile to Jenna's face when she thought of how Caroline had turned him down and left him standing on his own. This also took care of the weapon problem. Should it come to the worst, all Jenna would lose was one of Alaric's ordinary stakes she borrowed from his dresser.

Unfortunately for Caroline, he liked her, really liked her. Would he kill for her? Probably. Would he save her? It was a reasonable enough assumption. Did he love her? Jenna couldn't tell. But it didn't matter, because as Klaus never fails to point out, he always gets what he wants and he wanted Caroline.

So it had been settled, Caroline it was. The only thing left to figure out was how to get Caroline and Klaus into the same room. Jenna could've just waited until it would have happened on its own, but she preferred to not waste any more time than necessary. That's why she rifled through her mental list of things she could and couldn't do. She couldn't operate a cell phone to send Caroline a text and she was sure it would be nothing but a waste of time to try and write Caroline a note, at least on paper. So instead she waited around Caroline's house until the right opportunity presented itself. And it did the following morning. While Caroline was taking a shower, the steam fogged up the mirror above the sink enough for Jenna to leave a message.

Aside from how creepy I am being right now, this is perfect; Jenna remembered thinking to herself as she began to write a short message on the mirror.

_**Want Jeremy back? Come alone – Klaus**_

Jenna had no idea if this was something Klaus would write, but she had no other choice but to hope that Caroline would go for it. There was a good chance she would, seeing how everyone else was still looking for the missing stake. There also was this curiosity in Caroline regarding Klaus that would probably get the better of her.

If only she wasn't Elena's best friend. Jenna had nothing against Caroline. Caroline was great and she didn't deserve this. Even though she was a vampire, Jenna rather admired her for being able to hang on to her humanity the way she did. She had only been a vampire for a very short amount of time herself, but she could tell what it would be like to keep those cravings under control. She still remembered the taste of blood on her lips. Completely different from what it tasted like when you tried it as a human.

_It will not kill her. It will not kill her. It will not kill her._

Jenna faltered for a second and Klaus saw it. How could he not. She was no threat to him and he knew it, she knew it. How many times have people tried to get the better of him. They feared him, so they wanted to subdue him. But Klaus was strong, ruthless and overall psychotic. He killed whoever stood in his way and he didn't care about anyone. Except for a certain blonde vampire who was currently being threatened by a ghost without realize it.

Desperate times…

"Caroline, I'm sorry there must've been a misunderstanding. I have no reason to let Jeremy go. While we're on that subject, tell your friend Bonnie that she is the one who could make this go a whole lot faster."

"I don't know what kind of creepy thing you're planning on doing, but I want you to let Jeremy go." Caroline demanded.

"You should listen to her." Jenna said and followed Caroline's every move like a shadow. At this point Klaus was no longer paying attention to Caroline's words, who at this point was mentioning something about a shower. His eyes were completely focused on Jenna. He debated speeding over to her and taking the stake out of her hand, but he wasn't sure if that would work. Could he touch her? Why hadn't he tried before? He settled for words instead.

"You're dead, I'm dead; we are all dead." With every word he inched his way closer to Caroline, who at this point looked completely lost. "It's time to get over it, love." A cold smile spread across his face. "Everyone else has."

Jenna's eyes locked on to Klaus'. They looked different, colder and somehow he knew he took it one step too far. With one swift motion the stake pierced through Caroline's chest, missing her heart. Her scream echoed through the room, but Jenna didn't dare show the slightest reaction to Caroline's pain. Never before had she stabbed someone. Sure, there was the time she had stabbed herself, but that was under compulsion and she didn't exactly remember it very well, or maybe she simply chose not to.

Klaus sucked in a deep breath. Caroline was on the floor, trying to figure out what just happened while telling herself to listen more closely to her instincts next time. A few seconds passed in silence. Klaus didn't move and kept his eyes glued to Caroline, who tried to remove the stake from her chest.

"Next time this goes straight through her heart." Jenna's voice could not have been any calmer, not any more controlled, than at this moment. She was rather proud of that. "For every life you take, I'll take one in return." Klaus refocused his attention on Jenna.

"I will start with Caroline…" And just to add to the effect, Jenna pulled another stake out of her torn and bloody jacket. The very stake everyone had been searching for. She was killing it right this moment. "…and I will finish with you."

"Give me that stake or I'll tell Kol to go after Jeremy, but this time he will kill him." Klaus demanded and moved closer to Jenna.

"It doesn't matter. If you touch my family, I'll just skip right to the end and end you first instead." Within a blink Jenna stood behind Klaus, startling him. Jenna pushed against Klaus' back with the stake, "And something tells me that it won't be too difficult."

"But then you'll be stuck on the other side. I'm the only one who sees you, remember?" Klaus reminded her.

Jenna applied a little more pressure to the hybrids back. "I'll take that chance. And who knows, maybe you'll get stuck here with me and we can spend an eternity of misery together, team mate." Her voice sounded mocking, but in reality it was about the worst scenario she could come up with.

**xxxxx**

The second Jenna appeared back at the Quarry, she started to hyperventilate. Somewhere in the back of her head she hoped that Caroline was alright, but her main focus was to calm herself down. It felt quite exhilarating having the upper hand, but what didn't sit right with Jenna was how she had gotten there. This wasn't her. She had been so fueled by anger and maybe a few other stray emotions she had tried not to notice before, that it made her act on impulse rather than caution. Suddenly it became much harder to stay detached and as a result the world didn't look quite so grey anymore.

Jenna knelt down on the ground. It only started to sink in now. She had staked Caroline. She had threatened Klaus. She'd better be ready to make good on her threats.

Jenna looked down at the stake in her hand. She needed to hide it somewhere safe. The lose floorboard in her old room came to mind, but she didn't want to take the stake back to the house. It seemed too obvious. One other place came to mind. She wasn't really sure if it was less obvious, but to her it was certainly a place she never wanted to go back to.

After calming herself down enough, Jenna closed her eyes again and concentrated on where she wanted to go. When she opened them again, she immediately started digging in the dirt, trying to avoid the letters on the stone before her which informed her that this was the place she was supposed to be resting in peace.


	7. The New Deal

**7**

Both, Klaus and Jenna, had been sitting what felt like forever to Jenna at the Mikaelson's dining table. Besides Klaus stood a pretty young compelled girl, who held her wrist out so Klaus could snack on her.

"I thought you said you were going to help me." Jenna was getting impatient. After last night she had finally come down from her temporary power high and came back to the mansion. She wasn't sure how Klaus would react, but so far he was playing nice and they had a little chat, after which he said he would help her. Maybe he was scared of what Jenna would really do if he provoked her further or maybe he was just humoring her until he could get back at her. It was still to be decided.

"No, I said I would ask someone if they could help. I don't really think there is much I can do for you." Klaus said and added, "By the way, it's rude to watch other people eat." Jenna rolled her eyes.

"Patience" Klaus smiled at her. It made Jenna nervous whenever he smiled like that and not in a good way, "Help is on the way." And with that he leaned back in his chair and bit down on the young girl's wrist again.

**xxxxx**

"Explain this to me again." Damon said as he poured himself another glass of Bourbon. He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. He rounded on Caroline, who sat on the couch in the Salvatore's Boardinghouse with almost everyone else present.

"Against your better judgment, you follow some questionable message left on your bathroom mirror and have not stopped once to inform anyone of your treasure hunt? And then you get yourself staked on top of everything else." Caroline nodded. "How did that happen?"

"I really can't tell you how it happened. First I talked and then Klaus got all weird and the next thing I know I'm on the floor with a stake stuck in my chest. At least he was kind enough to pull it out." Caroline recalled what happened and absently rubbed the stopped where the stake had pierced her.

"Explain the Klaus getting weird part." Stefan said and started pacing.

"Klaus looked my way, but it seemed as if he was focusing on something behind me. What he said about how everyone's dead and I or whoever he was talking to should just get over it seemed completely random, because I had been talking about Jeremy." Caroline sucked in a deep breath and finished the story for what felt like the hundredths time, "Suddenly someone staked me, luckily missing my heart. It hurt so much, but I admit it was different. It felt really cold where the stake pierced me, only for a moment, but I'm sure that's not normal. Because you know, I've been hit by wooden bullets before. That definitely felt different."

"If Klaus really hadn't been asking you to come…" Alaric looked over to Caroline for confirmation. Caroline threw her hands in the air, "He did seem genuine surprised that I showed up. I don't think he had been expecting anyone."

"…then there is someone else playing his or her game with us, or just with Caroline." Alaric finished his thought. Stefan stopped his pacing and turned thoughtful, "Or maybe with Klaus."

"Great, another enemy, just what we needed." Damon rolled his eyes and drowned the last of his drink.

"Do you think maybe Katherine's back and playing games again?" Caroline shuddered. That was a scary thought. The last person Caroline wanted to see again was Katherine Pierce. But to her relieve Stefan reassured her, "There is no way Katherine would even consider coming close to this state as long as Klaus is still here. I think it's safe to rule her out." Damon agreed with his brother. The front door opened and closed again with a bang. Someone was in a hurry.

"Has anyone seen Bonnie or heard from her?" Elena entered and scanned the people in the room, "We were supposed to meet earlier, but she never showed. I called her and I went over to her house, but I can't find her." Everyone looked at each other with meaningful glances.

"Oh, she wouldn't…" Damon glanced at Caroline, unable to finish his sentence without pouring him another drink first.

**xxxxx**

Bonnie woke up with a start and a pounding in her head. She found herself in an armchair and she was definitely not at her house. The last thing she remembered was being on her way over to Elena's, because they were going to try out a spell to locate the missing stake. Half way there she was ambushed by several hybrids. She took two of them down, but there were too many for her to handle on her own. One had gagged her from behind while another bound her hands together. After that everything went black.

"I see you finally decided to join us." It was Klaus. Bonnie held her head between her hands and tried to concentrate on what he was telling her, "I apologize for the way you were brought here. My hybrids were supposed to ask you here nicely, but that didn't work out, did it." Maybe it was due to the pain in her head that she wasn't thinking clearly, but Bonnie tried to make a run for it. Klaus, being a lot faster of course, blocked her way.

"Listen up, witch. I'll make this really easy for you. You undo Esther's bonding spell and then you will be able to leave with Jeremy." Klaus took a quick glance behind Bonnie and received two thumps up from Jenna, who was watching the exchange from across the room.

"And to show you my good will…" Klaus turned slightly to the door and shouted, "Jeremy, you can come in now." Jeremy entered the room and took a seat. He seemed a bit out of it, as if he wasn't quite acting on his own accord.

"Did you compel him?" Bonnie walked over to Jeremy, but he didn't seem to even notice her. She turned her back on Klaus and inspected Jeremy's wound on his neck. Jenna made her disapproval evident by the look on her face. There was nothing she could do about it, though. Except pick up a pillow from one of the armchairs and throw it at Klaus, simply because she could. It hit him in the back, making him turn and give Jenna a quick smile, before throwing the pillow back in the armchair.

"He's been here long enough for all the vervain in his system to pass. It makes things so much easier. He's instructed to stay here until I say otherwise. I also have his little magic ring, so I suggest you get to work." Bonnie remained silent and went back to the armchair where she noticed her grimoire.

Rebekha chose this moment to enter the room and demand her brother follow her outside, because she had something to discuss with him before she left to have some fun of her own. After Klaus followed his sister out of the room, Jenna went over to Bonnie and tried to read the titles of the spells over Bonnie's shoulder while she was flipping through page after page. Unfortunately not much of it seemed to be in English. So much for finding something useful.

"How's it going in here?" Klaus entered the room again and Bonnie straightened up, surprised. She hadn't heard him coming back, "I found the spell, but it requires blood from you and your siblings."

"I have the blood you need." Klaus informed her and Bonnie nodded. She started to set up candles on a small table. Klaus watched her do it for a moment, hesitating. Jenna came up behind him and nudged him in the sides. Klaus threw her an irritated look over his shoulder, before he took a few steps towards Bonnie, making her look up at him.

"What do you know about ghosts?" The question seemed completely random to Bonnie, but she was going to play nice for Jeremy's and her own sake, "You need to be more specific than that."

"Let's say someone dies and they can't quite move on. What would one do in such a case?" Jenna unconsciously held her breath. Hopefully Bonnie would have an answer to this question. The witch turned thoughtful and really considered Klaus' question for a moment.

"I guess if someone is unable to move on then something's holding them back. Maybe they have unfinished business they need to take care of first or maybe they're just not accepting that they're dead. I really wouldn't know. I never encountered one." Bonnie said.

"That is her answer?" Jenna was not pleased with this outcome. Of course she had unfinished business. It's called living a full and happy life. And it wasn't as if she wouldn't know she was dead. She admitted that she had had a really hard time looking at her tomb stone last night, but who wouldn't? It was rather scarring watching herself get buried and mourned by everyone around her. Elena and Ric laying down the roses was the single most heartbreaking thing she had ever seen and it was burned into her brain.

By now Jenna was off in her own world and paced through the room, "And to think that I staked Caroline for this. What a complete waste of time and effort. Me holding myself back, has anyone ever heard of anything more ridiculous? I'm the one who wants to get out of this mess." She was getting all worked up about this.

"I need the blood now." Bonnie informed Klaus and watched him nod and head for the door. Klaus was thankful for getting out of the room. Jenna was still going on and on about how she could not be blamed. There was just one more question he needed to ask, "Do you think you could get rid of a ghost with a spell?" Bonnie was getting suspicious of his questions, but answered none the less.

"I don't think magic is the answer to such a problem. If a ghost or spirit is stuck, then in my opinion it's best to let them work it out by themselves. Mingling like that could end very badly." Bonnie was satisfied with her answer, but still wondered where all the questions came from. "But Esther is not a ghost. Her body's been preserved and that's why she was able to return to our world." Bonnie added, trying to figure out why Klaus was so interested in ghosts all of a sudden.

"I'll get you the blood now." Was all Klaus said before he left the room and headed over to another. He took his time in getting the vials containing his siblings' blood. Hoping Jenna would have maybe left, he made his way back to Bonnie. No such luck, of course. Jenna was waiting for him outside in the hall near the stairs.

"This is unacceptable. Make her tell you more. Have her do something." Jenna demanded and Klaus sighed and invaded her personal space, "Listen, I asked her and she gave you an answer. Just because you don't want to hear it, doesn't mean it's not true. If you're holding yourself back, then there is nothing left for me to do. This is your problem, not mine."

Harsh but true, Jenna thought and let herself plop down on the stairs. With her head in her hands, she started crying. It felt like it came all crashing down on her once again. She hadn't realized until now just how much hope she had put into Bonnie's answer and even Klaus.

Klaus tried to lighten the mood, "Yesterday you threatened to kill me and today you sit in front of me crying. Your mood swings are worse than my sister's." She did not go for it, so he turned and started to leave, but after a few steps he stopped and walked back over to Jenna. There was something about a crying woman he couldn't quite ignore. It must be the last remnant of his human life, he thought. Klaus would never admit it to anyone, but sometimes it was not the worst thing in the world to be able to feel, no matter how many times he said the opposite. And of course he still needed that stake.

Klaus sat down beside Jenna, "Now, come on, no need to cry." Good thing no one else was here to witness him trying to comfort air. He didn't know how he would explain that one.

Jenna looked up at him, "I've been trapped on this other side for way too long now. All I can do is watch. No one sees me, no one hears me. Do you understand how frustrating this is? How alone I've been for the past months?" It felt as if it was coming all out now. Everyone had a breaking point, even a ghost.

_Alone._ He knew what being alone felt like. "That's not entirely true. I do see you and I hear you." Funny how soothing his voice could be when he really tried, Jenna thought.

"How about we make a deal?" Klaus started and made sure Jenna was looking at him, "I promise to find out how to help you and when I do you will give me the stake. You move on and I will destroy the stake. Then we're both happy." Klaus held up his hand and waited for Jenna to take it.

Jenna pondered his words for a moment. Could she really trust him to do that? He did look pretty sincere right this moment and she still had the stake. She smiled a teary smile at him and put her hand into his. He squeezed it and she really wanted to believe him.

"Deal"


	8. One Down

**The previous chapter 8 has been replaced with this chapter to slow the story down a bit. That's the only thing that changed in the story.**

* * *

><p><strong>8<strong>

Jenna sat completely still in an armchair in Klaus' bedroom lost in her thoughts. It had been three days since Bonnie performed the spell that had unlinked the Originals. She didn't mean to spend all night sitting here, but it wasn't as if she really had to go anywhere. After Bonnie had left the house the witch broke down in the driveway. Jenna remembered thinking that she knew exactly how the teenager felt at that moment. She had still felt like crying herself.

**xxxxx**

_The stairs seemed as good a place as any to Jenna, so she remained seated there after her embarrassing little interlude with Klaus. Bonnie's words kept replaying in her head. She had hoped for an immediate solution to her problem, that's why she got angry and defensive when she didn't get one right away. Jenna was sure that she knew she was dead and accepting that fact was not easy, but as soon as she had woken up at the Quarry and realized that she had been turned into a vampire, she knew she wasn't going to live long enough to see another sunrise._

_But could it be that she held herself back? Had she unfinished business? Jenna didn't think so. Then again, most of her surroundings still appeared dull and faded. Maybe this was not normal, maybe this was Jenna hiding from her new reality. She took everything for what it was, thought that this is what it's like to be a ghost. Now she was thinking that maybe she was not allowing herself to feel, let alone leave this world._

_Jenna couldn't tell how long she sat there just thinking. Only when Rebekah's distraught voice entered the hall, was she pulled from her thoughts. She got up and followed the noise until she found the blond vampire sitting on the couch with her right hand over her mouth, a disbelieving expression on her face. On the table in front of her was a bag. Jenna could see the white oak stakes in there. So that's where Rebekah was all day. She remembered her leaving shortly after Bonnie regained consciousness, but Jenna had been so absorbed in what Bonnie might have to say, that she never questioned where Rebekah was off to. _

_Klaus stood unmoving in front of the fireplace and stared into the fire. There was sadness about the room and Jenna wondered what had happened. "I can't believe he's dead." Rebekah's voice cracked and the tears in her eyes threatened to spill over._

"_Finn was a love sick fool. He's better off dead." Klaus' words were harsh and cold. "He worked together with mother to kill us all or have you forgotten that? At least this way I don't have to kill him myself. Just be glad I got the witch to unlink us before it was too late."_

_The name sounded familiar. Wasn't that the name of one of their siblings, Jenna wondered. Had the Originals still been linked when Finn died, then they would all be dead now. That must have been the great plan then and once again it failed. No surprise there, although they did at least get one of them._

"_How can you say that? He was your brother. Is that how you would be talking about me, too?" Klaus remained silent, so Rebekah stood up and left the room. It was clear she would not get any more answers from her brother. As soon as she had left Klaus moved over to the table and grabbed the bag with the stakes._

"_Eavesdropping again?" Klaus said and walked back over to the fireplace. Jenna fully entered the room now and watched as Klaus drew the first stake from the bag and examined it._

"_I'm sorry to hear about your brother." Klaus held her gaze for a moment and Jenna thought she might have seen some sadness cross his eyes, but maybe it was just the reflection of the fire. She didn't know what she had expected, it was Klaus after all. _

"_There is really no need to be sorry." The Hybrid threw the stake into the fire and watched it burn. _

**xxxxxx**

And that was it. Nothing was spoken after that and both spend the rest of the evening in silence, watching the remaining stakes burn.

Since then things were slightly awkward around the hybrid's home. Rebekah wouldn't talk to Klaus, Kol fled town and Elijah hadn't been seen in a while either. It has become clear now that Esther poses a bigger threat than anyone had thought. Jenna hadn't wasted much thought about the witch and her intentions, but was now more or less forced to. Not because of Klaus or even herself, but her family and her friends. The original witch may be in hiding at the moment, but for how long? And what would she do, who would she use when she came back?

Jenna herself remained at the Mikaelson's Mansion, because Klaus had demanded as much. Now that they were working together he didn't want to be surprised or give her any time to come up with a plan to stab him in the back – with the last remaining white oak stake. She hadn't been too happy about this arrangement, but had agreed to it nevertheless. After her little breakdown on the stairs things got weird, at least on her part. He had been right, it had been quite a mood swing and now she didn't know how to act around Klaus. She made it clear she wouldn't hesitate to kill him, but then started crying in front of him like a little girl. As a result she tried to not let her unease show too much. She chose irritation instead.

The curtains were pulled away and the warm morning sunlight woke the hybrid from his sleep. When he opened his eyes he was greeted by a smiling Jenna, looming over him, "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping in a coffin?"

"Just go away." Klaus groaned and put the pillow from under his head over his face.

"How I wish I could." Jenna sighed and grabbed the pillow away from Klaus. "Rise and shine." And before he could say more she was gone again.

Oh, how he hated when she did that.


	9. Esther's Plan

**9**

"My mother needs to be put back into a coffin." After Klaus had finally gotten out of bed, he told Jenna that they needed to talk about their next move. Of course when he said talk, he meant order her to do something. The last thing Jenna needed was another argument, so she just left the hybrid while he was somewhere in the middle of his speech. She wished she had seen his face after that, because she was sure he didn't like it one bit, especially after the way she woke him up earlier.

Jenna figured that if anyone knew about what was going on it would probably be Damon and Alaric. She wasn't even surprised to find them sitting together at the Grill. They always seemed to be sitting at the same spot at the bar with a bottle of Bourbon in front of them. Jenna had never understood why these two of all people were friends. They seemed so different and Damon had even ended Alaric's marriage when he turned his wife into a vampire, but they had gotten over their differences somehow. Now Jenna was simply glad that Alaric wasn't alone and had someone looking after him, even if it was Damon Salvatore.

While Damon was pouring them another drink, Jenna took the seat beside Alaric at the bar. "You know what I don't understand, where is that stake?" Damon took a sip from his drink and went on, "Rebekah came and picked up the stakes and she must have known one was missing. No one but us seems to be worried about that, though. You'd think that at least one of the Originals would be bothering us about that."

Alaric didn't answer immediately and Jenna thought that he was choosing his next words carefully, "I think that Klaus knows that we don't have the missing stake, so what's the point? But hey, at least we got one of them." That's right, Jenna thought, they had managed to kill Finn.

Alaric downed the last of his drink and got up, "I have to go."

"Where are you going?" Damon seemed just as confused as Jenna by Alaric's sudden announcement.

"Nowhere, I just have to go now before I end up completely drunk in the middle of the day." Alaric tried to explain.

"So, what else is new? You're my drinking buddy. You're supposed to drink with me." Damon reached for the bottle again when he stopped and gave Alaric a knowing look instead. "It's that doctor, am I right? Meredith, was it?"

Alaric simply smiled, but didn't answer his vampire friend. Damon grinned, "Good for you, moving on and all. It's about time."

Terrific, Jenna mumbled and wished not for the first time she could down one of these drinks herself. Alaric nodded a farewell towards the vampire and turned to leave while Damon raised his glass in acknowledgment.

A part of Jenna wanted to follow her ex-boyfriend just to see if he was really meeting up with Meredith, but the rest of her dreaded finding out. What if he was with Meredith? What if they were happy together? Where would that leave her? It was no longer the same as before. When she first saw them together here at the Grill playing pool she had felt nothing, though according to Klaus her face had told a different story. More and more feelings were returning to her that she really didn't want. Bonnie had said that something might be holding her back here. Maybe it was all these unresolved feelings that kept pushing back to the surface. She would never know unless she confronted them.

Jenna had no idea how long she sat there lost in her thoughts, but when she looked up again she noticed that Damon was gone. He must've left at some point without her noticing. Jenna took a deep breath and tried to summon up Alaric's face in her mind before she could talk herself out of it again.

**xxxxxx**

Simply put, it was not what she had expected. There was no Meredith, no other woman or anyone else really. Jenna found herself standing in a small cemetery surrounded by tomb stones and just in front of her was the Salvatore family crypt. This cemetery wasn't used anymore; it was too small and in the middle of the woods. Now, why would Alaric come here, Jenna wondered and entered the crypt.

It was mostly dark inside, because not much sunlight got through the cobwebs and dirt that covered the two small windows on either side of the crypt. Jenna found Alaric standing right in the middle of the room pulling different thing from a backpack: a bowl, candles and a couple of other items Jenna couldn't quite place. Alaric couldn't hear his dead ex-girlfriend, but that didn't stop Jenna from asking him what the hell he was doing. To add to Jenna's already growing confusion Alaric just let it all lie there and took a seat in one of the corners. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Sleeping, really?" Jenna asked perplexed. Or waiting, she thought. Either way Jenna got bored fast. Nothing was happening and she really didn't want to spend all day here. Maybe this is just part of their next plan to kill Klaus. In this case she wasn't so worried, since the execution of such plans always seemed to fail. Of course this would mean someone else must know about this. Jenna decided her chances of finding out were better with the others, so she started picturing her niece in her mind. It was as good a place as any to start.

**xxxxxx**

In the end Jenna had learned absolutely nothing. She had found Elena, Bonnie and Caroline in the Gilbert's kitchen discussing next week's decade dance of all things. This time the school was doing the 20's. Jenna remembered the last Decade Dance she went to as a chaperone for the 50's dance. Alaric had asked her to oversee all the teenagers with him, but she didn't allow her thoughts to go down that road. She also had gotten the feeling that none of the girls, save for Caroline probably, were really excited about it. It seemed more something they did, so they wouldn't have to think about all the supernatural problems that were their lives.

"This whole recon thing was a waste of time if you ask me." Jenna arrived back in the Mikaelson's Mansion. She walked into the living room ready to tell Klaus that she had found out absolutely nothing, when she stopped short. Klaus wasn't here, but Rebekah was standing in the middle of the room, talking to her mother. For a moment Jenna hesitated and thought about leaving and finding Klaus to tell him she found his mother. Better to know what's happening first, Jenna decided and started listening in on the conversation.

"My body is weak and I'm dying, Rebekah." Esther's voice was gentle, but the look on Rebekah's face showed that she was having none of it, "So you came here to spend your last moments with your daughter? You'll be disappointed. Maybe you should've spent less time plotting my death."

"Is that what you think I did on the other side? I was there and watched over you for the past thousand years, Rebekah. When you cried, when called out my name, when your heart got broken, when you fought with Klaus…I was always right there with you." Esther took a few steps closer to her daughter, "But what I did was wrong. I should've never turned my children into vampires. No one should be allowed to live this long."

"I haven't lived at all." Rebekah's voice cracked and tears were forming in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Rebekah, for everything." In a last gesture Esther grabbed her daughter's hands and held them in her own as she began to shake uncontrollably. It was one of those things that you really didn't want to watch, but at the same time you cannot look away.

Esther hit the floor and just lay there, unmoving. Rebekah's eyes were trained on her mother and she too was absolutely still. Already Jenna felt incredibly bad for the blonde vampire and was instantly reminded of the death of her own mother. Unable to move, Jenna remembered standing first at her mother's grave and then later at her sister's. Tears sprang into her eyes and somewhere in the back of her head she cursed the fact that she was no longer able to just deny herself any feelings. Her main focus however was on Rebekah. She remembered how the blonde had reacted to the death of her brother. Rebekah, unlike Klaus, was sad about the loss of Finn and now only a few days later she had to witness her mother die a second time. Vampire or not, Jenna was sure that something like that would not leave the blonde before her unaffected.

Alone for that reason Jenna was really glad she was invisible. She didn't like being around grieving people, because she never knew what to say or do around them. Telling someone that you're sorry for their loss isn't going to help them, let alone bring anyone back from the dead. It had been different with Klaus, though. He didn't want or need her sympathy. The only thing they had exchanged was silence and it had been enough.

Jenna prepared herself for Rebekah's emotional response, except it never came. Something's not right, Jenna thought, and instantly felt proven right in her assumption when Rebekah lifted her head up again. Her eyes held no unshed tears anymore and on her face was not a single trace of emotion other than boredom. She sighed and simply stepped over her mother's dead body. Jenna couldn't tell what it was, but something made her follow Rebekah who was headed straight for the door.

**xxxxxx**

As soon as Rebekah had left the house she used her vampire speed to get away. Jenna almost believed her ghostly abilities were starting to stop working properly when she just couldn't catch up to Rebekah. Whenever she arrived at one location the blonde vampire would have already moved on. She simply moved too fast and it started to tick Jenna off. So far she's been to a few places, one of them being her own house. She had also briefly been back to the cemetery, but didn't waste any time there, not even to check if Alaric was still there. Jenna had been confused about what in the world Rebekah wanted here, but hadn't thought much about it.

This time she gave the vampire a little more time hoping she would finally arrive at her final destination. So the next time Jenna opened her eyes she finally found Rebekah and also recognized her surroundings immediately. It seemed that all roads would lead back to where she had died. For now she remained in the shadows and watched.

Rebekah seemed impatient as she paced around. Before Jenna could even think about what or who kept the blonde waiting she heard a familiar voice. "Now what is so important that demanded my immediate presents, little sister?" Klaus walked further out into the open, "And at a place like this no less."

"I needed to talk to you and it's quiet out here." Rebekah said and stopped her pacing. "I was wondering when I retrieved the stakes from the Salvatores I counted them, but there seemed to be one missing. Were you going to tell me that there was still a stake out there somewhere that could easily kill me forever?"

"You bring me out here just to ask me that?" Klaus started to get suspicious. "All you need to know is that it is taken care of. You're safe." Jenna chose this moment to walk out of the shadows and show herself to Klaus. He turned slightly and stared at her for a moment. Clearly he hadn't been expecting her here.

"Hello, I'm talking to you, Nick. Do you hear me?" Rebekah's impatient voice made him look back to her again.

"Something's not right." Jenna said a little louder to make sure Klaus would hear her who's eyes were still fixed on his sister, "She was with your mother and then your mother died and…something's just not right. I can't explain it, but it's not Rebekah."

"Where is the stake, Nick?" Rebekah's voice sounded demanding in a way that wasn't Rebekah. It was lacking emotion, Jenna thought. Apparently Klaus thought so as well, because his eyes narrowed and he grabbed his sister by the throat. In less than a second he had her pinned against a tree. Rebekah struggled, but couldn't get out of her brother's grip.

"You know what your mistake was?" Klaus was speaking with a hint of superiority in his voice, "She was only to pick them up, but I never told Rebekah how many stakes there actually were."

"I guess we'll have to do it the hard way then." As soon as the words had left Rebekah's mouth her eyes rolled up and her body went limb. Klaus let go of her and took a few steps back. By the time he turned around to look for Jenna, he was greeted by the sight of his mother standing a few feet away. She waved her hand once and the next time Klaus tried to move he found he couldn't. His feet were rooted to the spot, he was only still in control of his upper body. "I guessed you wouldn't be fooled so easily seeing how you like to use this little trick yourself from time to time. As to why we're here…this is the place you performed the ritual to become a hybrid again. The ground is marked with the violence and death of that night. It's perfect to draw power from."

"You're wasting your time. I don't know where the stake is." Klaus spat at his mother. It was not a lie exactly.

"We'll see about that." Esther came closer to her son until she could touch his face. Klaus struggled against it, but he stopped fighting it as soon as Esther started to chant. Instead he tried his hardest not to scream too loud. After some time Esther stopped and took a few steps back again.

"It appears you were telling the truth and lying at the same time. It is an interesting development, though. Is your little ghost friend here with us right now?" Esther's eyes kept searching around, while she spoke. Jenna had a bad feeling that she was the one the witch was looking for. She hoped the witch wouldn't be able to sense her anywhere or whatever it was witches did.

Esther was still letting her eyes wander around and Jenna worried more and more about being found. "The victim working together with her killer…I must say the two of you make an unlikely pair. You shouldn't trust him. If you help me now, then I will make sure you can move on. You will no longer be stuck on the other side. You can finally be at peace."

Jenna's eyes instantly fixed on the witch and then flickered over to where Klaus was still standing, still unable to move from the spot. He didn't look her way, probably to not give his mother any clue to where Jenna was, but she could swear she saw him swallow hard. After all it was exactly what she told Klaus she wanted. It was a tempting offer, but how would she possibly be able to know if Esther would keep her word. Besides it wasn't just about herself anymore. She did this because she wanted to make sure her family was safe from Esther and she couldn't do that if she was send away now.

When Esther didn't receive any kind of answer she sighed disappointed, "I see my son must have gotten into your head. Pity, I really didn't want to do this."

The witch started mumbling in a language Jenna couldn't understand and she didn't like it one bit. Slowly Jenna felt a pressure build behind her eyes. It started to spread across her entire face and suddenly it felt like her head was exploding. She didn't mean to but she couldn't stop herself from screaming. Her fingers were digging into her skull and eventually her knees gave out and she hit the floor. It felt like thousands of little ants were crawling through her brain digging away at her mind trying to find what they were looking for. Fighting it seemed impossible. Now Jenna knew how Klaus had felt earlier when his mother was going through his mind.

At some point Jenna thought she had heard someone call out her name. The same voice also screamed at someone else to stop, but between her screams and the unbearable pain she wasn't sure she heard anything at all. A little help would be nice right about now, except the hybrid was still rooted to the spot and Rebekah still unconscious on the floor. Jenna had no other choice than to hang on; fighting a battle she couldn't possibly win.

Suddenly the chanting stopped and the pain in Jenna's head subsided until there was only a ringing in her ears and a distinctive less painful throbbing left. Carefully she untangled her fingers from her hair, but didn't dare open her eyes in case that would bring the pain back. Her body relaxed visibly and she took a deep breath.

"She's gone." This time she had no trouble hearing the voice and placing it. Slowly she opened her eyes and took a look around. Rebekah still lay on the ground. Her older brother leaned over her and stroked over her hair. Jenna guessed that no matter how much they fought he would always love her like big brothers love their little sisters. Lost in thought, Jenna kept staring at them without noticing Klaus' gaze on her.

"Are you alright?" Klaus asked her not being able to keep the concern out of his voice completely.

Startled Jenna focused her eyes again and looked at him for a moment. Was she alright? The pain was mostly gone and her feet felt strong enough to support her again, though she remained on the ground. Physically she was ok, emotionally just as damaged as before.

"I feel…dead. So yes, I guess I'm alright." Jenna tried to smile, but it wouldn't really work. Now that she was focused again she realized that there was one thing that neither of them had broad up so far. Another moment passed with them just staring at each other.

"She knows." It came out as barley a whisper, but Klaus caught the words. He gave a sharp nod and closed his eyes for a second. He looked so tired in that moment, tired of it all. Jenna couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. Maybe she should have tried to fight harder against Esther's assault on her mind, but there wasn't much she could do against a thousand-year old witch. She wondered what it must feel like to have one's own mother want to kill you so bad.

Klaus sighed and lifted his sister up into his arms effortlessly. "Come on, we need to find my mother again. Whatever she is planning on doing with the stake, she'll do it as soon as possible."

Back to business then, Jenna thought and got up off the ground herself, when she remembered something that had bothered her all day long. "I think I know where to look. If I'm right, I will get you." The next second she was gone.

"If you could see this, you'd be laughing at me." Klaus mumbled to his unconscious sister and sped back to his mansion with her.

**xxxxxx**

At some point Alaric went outside of the crypt and walked around the cemetery for a bit. Apparently this was the spot where Esther was killed by her son over a thousand years ago. The waiting was boring and the longer he waited the worse he felt for lying to his friends. It also gave him more and more time to think about what he had gotten himself into. He simply tried to remember why he did it.

Alaric turned as soon as he heard footsteps coming down the only path in the cemetery. "We need to hurry", was all Esther said as she entered the crypt and got right to work. Alaric followed her silently inside.

"Give me your ring." The witch demanded and held her hand out to Alaric. "You want me to give you the one thing that will ensure that I'll come back to life?" he asked her unconvinced.

Esther smiled and tried not to sound too impatient, "We have only one stake and when it gets used against one of my remaining children it will burn with them and we're left with nothing. I need to make sure the stake will endure the fire, so it can be used again against the rest of them until they're all gone."

Alaric was still skeptical, but slid the ring off his finger and handed it over. Esther examined it quickly before she placed the ring in the bowl and closed her eyes chanting slowly. Before Alaric knew it his ring started to melt. Somehow this was not what he had had in mind. When it had completely dissolved into a silver thick fluid, Esther stopped and opened her eyes again. She took the stake and carefully guided it around the bowl. The fluid rose on its own accord and spread across the stake, forming some kind of pattern.

"Where did you find the stake?" Alaric asked as he watch the pattern complete itself.

"In the most unlikely place" The witch answered cryptically, "It's done, the ultimate weapon for the ultimate hunter."

"I wouldn't call myself the ultimate hunter." Alaric mumbled and the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach grew bigger. This was a bad idea, he thought. Something held him there in the crypt. He felt like he just couldn't leave, not anymore.

"Not yet." Esther smiled a devilish smile which sent a shiver down Alaric's back. The sudden sharp pain in Alaric's side made him cry out. Esther had seemingly out of nowhere produced an athame and buried it into his side. Blood was staining his shirt with at an alarming rate. Then, it all went dark and Alaric crumpled to the floor, right in front of Jenna's feet.

**xxxxxx**

After he had dumped his sister on the couch Klaus started to pace up and down the living room.

"What is taking her so long?" The hybrid hated waiting around. It made him agitated and left him feeling helpless and weak. Not to mention he put his faith in a ghost only he could see, someone who had been killed for his own selfish reasons. All of a sudden she had been there entering his life without a warning and now he couldn't get rid of her, not that he tried so hard anymore.

Maybe it serves me right, Klaus thought. What would happen after this was all over, though? If they somehow all got out of this alive and the last stake was destroyed, would they still stand on the same side? Jenna had made it clear she could hold her own when she had threatened to stake him. Maybe it had been ignorance on her part, but not many would stand against him like that. He hadn't liked it one bit then, but now it seemed a quality that could come in handy. She also made a terrific spy, Klaus smiled at that thought.

The next time Klaus turned around to pace back to the other side of the room, there she was. Jenna stood in the middle of the room, but said nothing. The hybrid thought that his ghostly friend looked a little pale and shaken.

"Did you find her?" Klaus asked, but Jenna didn't have to answer that. Her face said it all. "Where?"

**xxxxxx**

After Jenna had finally gotten out the words of Esther's whereabouts Klaus set off immediately. Jenna wasn't so quick to follow. She still saw Alaric in front of her crying out and bleeding. She dreaded going back, but knew she had to.

It was no surprise to Jenna that she made it back there before Klaus arrived. What did surprise her was the presence of another person – Elena. The first thing she noticed was the violent red streams across Elena's wrists. Obviously they had been bound together. Jenna felt a little sick to think that maybe Elena had been here all along and she just hadn't realized it. Was this why Esther went to her house earlier in Rebekah's body? Jenna was so focused on her niece that in the first moment she didn't even realize what else was in front of her. Only now she saw what Elena was doing. Leaning over Alaric's body her niece pulled the stake from earlier out of his body.

I wasn't gone that long, Jenna thought, what the hell happened.

"He will wake up soon." Esther handed Elena a handkerchief for her bleeding hand which she only accepted after staring at Esther with a distraught look on her face. "Then you have time to say goodbye until his transition is complete. After that he will be strong enough to take on my children. He'll be the ultimate hunter and rid the world of the evil I created."

"The evil you created? This is just as evil! How will creating another vampire solve anything?" Elena sobbed and wrapped the handkerchief around her hand.

"Alaric will not be like my children. His only task will be to destroy them and after that he will die himself. The world will be a better place again with all the vampires gone. No one will have to suffer at the hands of them ever again, like your aunt Jenna did."

"Don't you use Jenna as an excuse for what you did!" Elena was angry and sad and felt so helpless. Jenna wanted nothing more than to hug her and tell her it would all be alright. She was even tempted to move over to her, but a noise from outside made everyone in the room pause and listen.

Outside Jeremy and Matt awaited Esther, both pointing guns at her. "Let my sister go!" Jeremy demanded.

"Why are you trying to fight the one thing that will save you all?" Esther seemed not to understand, but wasn't going to waste any time with them. She raised her hands and suddenly the two boys were pointing their guns at each other.

"Jeremy, I can't move." Matt sounded slightly panicked. Jeremy couldn't move either. They would shoot themselves if no one was going to do something. Elena was no help either. She kept trying to convince Esther to stop with words Jenna knew the witch didn't care about. Enough people got hurt for one night, Jenna had to do something. With all the strength she could summon she threw herself against Jeremy just as Matt's gun went off. For a second everything slowed down and she thought it hadn't worked, but then they both hit the floor unharmed.

Esther seemed surprised, but whatever she was about to say got cut off by the sound of her neck snapping. Klaus stood behind her and watched his mother crumple towards the ground. No one moved and just stared at each other trying to make sense of the situation, until a noise from behind them seemed to unfreeze the scene. Alaric staggered out of the crypt and looked confused. He examined his bloody shirt and then paused. He searched his hands in confusion, "Where is my ring? What just happened?"

**xxxxxx**

Jenna could still see Elena's shocked face in her mind after Alaric couldn't remember what happened. It left her with the unpleasant task to explain it to him and the others. From what Jenna gathered, Esther had used Elena's blood in some sort of ritual to turn Alaric into a better and stronger hunter. He had all the abilities of his vampire enemies. Of course this was not entirely true yet. Alaric was still in transition and unless he fed soon he would die.

"There is no way I'm doing this. I'd rather die than become another one of her creations." It had been Alaric's final words. He would not accept any argument afterwards. So one by one, they all accepted the fact that he chose death over being a vampire. The news spread fast and they all came by to say their goodbyes. It was hard for Elena, but even harder for Jeremy who had found a sort of father figure in Ric. After Jeremy hugged Alaric Jenna had to leave for a while. She couldn't bear to watch any longer.

Before when Elena had pulled out the stake of Alaric, Jenna had been too shocked to properly react to it. This was different now. It was happening right in front of her and there was no way out. _N_o magic was going to safe him now, only blood.

By the time she returned almost everyone had left and the little cemetery was quiet again. Even Esther's body was gone. Klaus had taken her with him. When he had passed Jenna he had stopped for a moment and nodded ever so slightly towards her. Jenna returned the gesture. Again they didn't need words, the silence was enough.

Damon was the only one who stayed behind. He would stay and wait until it was over and no matter what Ric told him Damon wouldn't leave. Jenna understood that, she wasn't going anywhere either.

As Damon and Alaric talked about different things while waiting, Jenna wondered if she and Damon would've ever become friends. She had never liked the way he looked at Elena and she hadn't tried to hide it. Jenna knew his type; she had dated enough Damon Salvatores to know better. But maybe they could've eventually gotten over that if she had lived, if Ric would live.

"I'm sorry I killed you…twice" Damon apologized and both men laughed. It broke Jenna's heart a little to watch both of them sitting there trying to say goodbye without actually using the word. Eventually she took a seat beside Alaric. He got visibly worse and his breathing was slowing down. She wondered if he would know that she was here. When he died would that mean she would meet him again? She didn't dare hope.

For a few minutes no one said anything anymore. There was nothing left to talk about. Alaric took one last deep breath and when he exhaled his body slumped against the wall. He didn't take another breath and both Jenna and Damon knew what that meant. Damon got up of the floor and left the crypt. Jenna thought she had seen some tears in his eyes, but she couldn't really tell, because her own were starting to blur her vision. It was exactly the second time Jenna cried since she had died. Once one the stairs in front of Klaus and now a second time watching Alaric die. It wasn't fair. What had she done that has been so horrible that she deserved to die and then be forced to watch everyone's lives get ruined?

Jenna remained on the floor beside Alaric's still body and took his hand into her own. She leaned her head against his shoulder and just kept crying. Not just because of his death, but her own death as well.

Something had broken in Jenna and the feelings were now pouring out without mercy. The realization of everything she had lost and would never have again hit her hard. She would never again have silly fights with her family. She wouldn't be there to see Elena and Jeremy graduate and take a part in their lives after that. Never would she get married nor have children.

She would never get her chance to say goodbye.


	10. Decade Dance

**10 **

It was past midnight by the time Klaus entered his house and just like any other night for the past week he walked into the same situation. The few lights that were turned on flickered and the familiar sound of something breaking reached his ear.

Klaus sighed. His house had been haunted by a very emotional ghost lately and he was getting tired of it. He entered the room he heard the noise come from and sure enough found Jenna pacing the room. Some kind of low energy seemed to radiate from her and it seemed directly connected to her anger level. It messed with the lights, too. Klaus remembered feeling this energy when he first met her at her family's ball right before she had disappeared.

Leaning against the door frame he watched Jenna for a while. The ghost hadn't noticed him enter the room. He was glad she seemed to be able to hold it together better now. The first day after the Esther fiasco he had returned from storing his mother's coffin in a safe location to find Jenna huddled in a corner of the room. She had been crying and hyperventilating. Muttering about things he couldn't even make out with his sensitive hearing.

He had felt sorry for her then. Something about her just reached a part of him he thought had died a long time ago. Of course he had no idea how to make her feel better. He knew what it felt like to lose people, what it's like to deny emotion and how it felt when it all came rushing back, but he wasn't the comforting type. He had no magic words that would help her move on quicker. Only time would be able to do that. The best thing he could do was to sit beside her for that one night. They never said a single word to each other, but once again words weren't necessary.

**xxxxxx**

Miranda's dead, Alaric's dead, half the people she knew…all dead. But she herself hadn't felt this alive in a very long time. The world had begun to brighten around her after she had stabbed Caroline, but now it was back in full color. It also no longer sounded like she was listening through a thin wall. Whatever was holding Jenna back before was gone now. Now all the feelings crashed down on her. She remembered the fear when she realized she was going to die, the sadness watching Elena and Jeremy grief, the guilt when she watched Alaric drink his sorrows away and the jealousy when he was with Meredith. Every feeling she didn't acknowledge before was back now and it was too much too fast.

Jenna felt like she had cried for the entire week that has passed since Alaric's death and she hated it. The only explanation she could come up with was that stupid vampire switch. Elena had told her to turn it off, that she wouldn't be scared anymore. Jenna remembered doing just that seconds before Klaus had staked her. Could it be that her emotional switch was still turned off even after her death? Was it even possible?

It would've been nice to know how it felt when all the emotions came back, Jenna thought angrily and threw the lamp besides her against the wall. That's the way she dealt with the onslaught of emotions, she kept breaking things. She ran her hands through her hair and when she turned around she noticed Klaus standing over by the door.

"What?" Jenna asked irritated.

"It's been a week, time to move on." Jenna stared at him in disbelieve. Klaus meant for it to sound a lot meaner, but his heart just wasn't in it.

"What? You're so depressing; you're starting to drag me down with you. Not to mention you keep breaking things." Jenna took a good look around her. He was right; she had been breaking more things in this house than she could count. It was easier to break something that didn't mean anything to her.

"I think it's great your finally accepting you're a ghost or whatever it is that lets you do this now, but could you please do it somewhere else?" Klaus kept rambling on while he picked up the pieces of the broken lamp. Jenna watched him and contemplated why she was here. She had thought about going home and making them finally notice her presence, but it was just such a depressing house at the moment. Jeremy was practically in denial while Elena tried to get him to talk about his feelings. Good luck with that, Jenna had thought, because she had been down that road before without much luck. When Elena started crying then, Jenna had to leave and for some reason came straight back here to the Mikaelson Mansion. Somehow it became sort of a new home. It was cold and unfeeling most of the time and she liked it. Here she wasn't constantly surrounded by other people's grief.

"I'm sorry" Jenna sighed as new wave of guilt washed over her and she let herself fall down on the couch.

"What you need is a distraction. Tomorrow is the Decade Dance at the school and I'll be there. They're doing the 1920's and my sister is completely psyched to go to her first dance. You should come, too." Klaus suggested, but made sure not to leave too much room for protest. This ghost needed cheering up and he couldn't think of a better thing then the 20's to do just that.

"Why would I go there?" Jenna had absolutely no intention of being surrounded by dancing teenagers.

"Well, you can't stay here and keep on breaking my beautiful home into pieces." Klaus had finished picking up the last of the pieces of the broken lamp and set it down on the table.

"What if I do something stupid at the dance? What if I get angry and the lights flicker again. I hate when that happens." Jenna still wasn't convinced.

"You need to find a way to deal with the emotions or it will never get better. Preferably in a better way than you're now." Klaus said. It had been a long night for the hybrid. He left Jenna on the couch to think over his advice.

The House remained silent for the rest of the night it. Jenna had left the Mansion at some point and turned up by the Quarry. She lay on the makeshift stone altar she had died on and just stared up into the night sky. It was a clear night and the stars had a calming effect on Jenna. She hadn't moved since she got here. The anger and guilt she felt earlier were long replaced by self pity and hopelessness.

"_Jenna, look at me, it's going to be ok. It's going to be ok."_ Jenna kept hearing Elena's words in her head over and over again. Except of course nothing turned out okay that night. They had both died. Jenna had even died twice in one night. She guessed not many people could say that about themselves.

The entire night played out before her eyes again. From the time when Klaus had made her drink his blood to the moment she drank blood for the first time to her feeble attempt to not be an entire failure and kill the witch.

Pathetic, Jenna mumbled. She couldn't even get that right. Why not just snap the witch's neck instead? Jenna sighed, because she knew exactly why. Of course she wanted to save Elena, but it also was the witch's blood that drove her to her final action.

"Stupid vampire cravings" The anger was returning, so Jenna took a deep breath. Maybe a distraction was not such a bad idea. She simply needed something she could concentrate on. Remembering what she looked like the last time she saw herself in a mirror Jenna decided that that was what needed to change first. Who could move on from dying when their bloody clothes were a constant reminder of their death? She may have not cared before, but she couldn't show up to the Decade Dance without the proper attire. Even if no one would notice, at least she knew she looked good. She only had to think of a place and she was there. Jenna couldn't see why it shouldn't work with clothes either. That why she closed her eyes and tried to come up with something that would fit the 1920's.

**xxxxxx**

It had been quiet all day and it concerned Klaus a little bit. Jenna had left some time during the night, but hadn't bothered to return and break some more of his stuff.

"Where's my angry little ghost?" He had been through the entire house by now. Jenna was nowhere to be found. He tried to decide if that was a good or bad thing when he heard his sister's voice from behind him, "What did you just say?"

He turned around to face her, "Nothing." His answer came a little too quickly, but he didn't let his unease show. Rebekah eyed her brother for a moment, "I thought I heard you speak."

"You must've been mistaken." Klaus changed the subject then, "I see you're all dressed up for the dance. You look nice." This put a smile on Rebekah's face. She looked down on herself and smoothed her dress down.

"Yes, I'm all done. My date will pick me up soon. I guess I'll be seeing you there." Klaus could have made a nasty comment about the human boy, who was picking up his sister, but things had settled down between the siblings and they had returned to being civil with each other.

Klaus made sure Rebekah was down the stairs before he opened the door to his room. The sight that greeted him inside was something he hadn't expected. Jenna looked at her handy work in the mirror. She liked her outfit. It was much better than the bloody clothes she wore for weeks. Sometimes she thought that she had only punished herself for her failure to protect her family. Maybe if she really wanted to she could even be seen by other people than Klaus. Those thoughts were forgotten however when Klaus entered his room and spotted Jenna twirling in front of the mirror.

"You're back." Klaus did a double take, "What are you wearing?"

Jenna looked down on herself. She didn't know much about the 1920's, but she had seen a similar dress in a magazine once. A white flapper dress, complete with a white pearl necklace that wrapped around her neck twice and still reached down to her stomach. She even wore matching long silk gloves and white shoes. Her hair fell down to her shoulder in loose curls. The only thing she passed on was a head band with a feather in it. She thought it looked rather silly. Besides, it wasn't like anyone would even notice.

"I figured out how to change clothes and I thought this was appropriate. Isn't it what women would wear when they went dancing?" Jenna asked a little uncertain now that Klaus eyed her so intensely.

"No, I just meant…" Klaus laughed and shook his head lightly, "Well, it suits you better than the bloody clothes." At the very least it stops reminding me of what I've done to you, Klaus thought to himself pleased. Jenna simply took the compliment and smiled for the first time in what seemed forever. Klaus smiled with her. Making two girls smile in a row, he must be on a roll.

**xxxxxx**

The dance had started about an hour ago, but Klaus told Jenna that they would wait a while longer before they crashed it. By now the gym was packed with students and from the looks of it they had once again outdone themselves. Or at least Caroline Forbes had, since Jenna guessed that she was the driving force behind these decorations. The gymnasium was covered in balloons and stars that hung from the ceiling. The dominant colors were red and silver and it glittered everywhere. The tables were nicely decorated, too. They didn't have a live band here as they used to when Jenna was still attending these dances, but the 20's music was blaring from the speakers placed around the room.

The hybrid and the ghost were standing at the entrance and looking over the crowed until Klaus seemed to have found what he was looking for. Caroline Forbes was laughing and dancing with her boyfriend Tyler Lockwood. They looked like a carefree teenage couple, at least for tonight. Jenna noticed the look on Klaus' face and without thinking spoke, "You know, she'll never forgive you."

That seemed to get the hybrid's attention, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that a girl's first love stays with her forever. If you run Tyler out of town or even kill him, she'll never get over it. This is certainly not the way to win a girl's heart." Jenna didn't look at Klaus when she said that, instead she kept her eyes trained on the dancing teenagers, "But hey, that's just my opinion."

Jenna could practically feel Klaus' eyes on her, but she didn't turn to look at him. Instead she told him, that she would walk around the crowed for a bit and try to find Elena and Jeremy.

She had taken a few steps towards the crowd when she heard Klaus ask, "How would I win a girl's heart, then?"

"Oh, that entirely depends on the girl" Jenna winked at Klaus and disappeared into the crowed. She felt like she shouldn't have said anything at all. What was it to her what Klaus wanted with the blond vampire. Caroline did seem rather happy with Tyler, though. Jenna still felt a little bad for stabbing her, so this was her way of trying to make it up to her. The girl had enough on her plate as it was, she didn't need a hybrid to add to her problems as well.

Out of the corner of her eye she could still see Klaus invading Tyler's personal space with a threatening glare. Though Tyler's expression remained determined, he stepped away from Klaus and Caroline and disappeared into the crowd. Caroline reluctantly started to dance with the hybrid then.

That was when Jenna heard a familiar voice to her left. She left Caroline and Klaus behind her and spotted Elena and Stefan not far from where she stood. Elena was actually smiling and enjoying a dance with Stefan. Jenna wondered if her smile was real or if she was just putting on a good show for her friends, because her niece tented to that.

Elena leaned in closer to Stefan and pointed over to her right and giggled. Jenna's eyes followed the direction Elena pointed in and found Jeremy dancing with Bonnie. That's right, Jenna thought with a smile, those two were happening somehow. It came as a surprise the first time Jenna had realized that, but Bonnie was a great girl and Jeremy needed someone who wouldn't let him fall back into his old destructive habits. The witch seemed to be the right girl for that.

Jenna realized that her niece and her nephew would be ok and started to walk through the crowed again. After she circled the room once she ended up where she started. She saw how Caroline looked up at Klaus with a surprised look on her face. Whatever the hybrid had just told her, he must've used the right words, because now she was leaning closer to him and listening intently. This was the point where Jenna decided that it was too boring watching other people have all the fun and headed for the double doors that lead back out to the hallway.

"I'm sorry, would you repeat that?" Caroline asked, not daring to believe what she just heard.

"I believe you heard me just fine. Tyler can stay and I promise I won't try to kill him or run him out of town anymore. Of course this only applies as long as he stops trying to get me killed or mess with my hybrids." Klaus forced a smile and watched Caroline visibly relax in his grip.

Caroline couldn't help herself but ask, "Why the sudden change of heart?"

Klaus' gaze travelled over the room for a moment, searching for something he could no longer find. While he was dancing with Caroline and talking with her about the future they could have, he had realized that maybe it won't be as easy to convince her as he had thought. She was still so young and had a lot to figure out about herself.

"Let's just say someone made me realize that Tyler is your first love and a girl never forgets her first one. The time simply isn't right for us at the moment. Maybe in a decade or a century things will be different." Caroline tried really hard not voice her thoughts about that. She was somehow winning here and she didn't want to screw it up.

Klaus spun Caroline one last time in a slow circle and then let go of her. The hybrid turned around and walked out of the gym with a little smile on his face. He would not bother her again for the foreseeable future.

**xxxxxx**

Jenna walked the halls of the high school. Last time she was here she had gotten a lecture from Mr. Tanner about her parenting skills and she hadn't liked that at all. Stupid teacher, Jenna thought and felt a little bad right after, because she remembered he was dead now. Then again, who wasn't in this town?

Jenna stopped in front of one of the many trophy displays of the school. The music was turned up so loud she could still hear it out in the hall and hummed in tune with the melody of the song. Mystic Falls did not only love their Decade Dances, it also loved sports. There were trophies for practically every sport played here, even the cheerleaders won their fair share of competitions. In her time Jenna had never really been interested in any of this. She rather hung out with her friends under the bleachers drinking than cheering on other people while wearing short skirts and tight shirts.

"There you are." Jenna gasped and spun around to see Klaus leaning against the wall in his impeccable white suite. She hadn't heard him coming.

"Already done with the dancing?" Jenna eyed him and willed her heart to slow down again. The hybrid shrugged, "I guess you were right. It's their time now. I can wait."

"You can?" A bit of surprise snaked into Jenna's voice. The last attribute she would assign to Klaus was patience. Unless maybe when it came to torture or generally making people's lives miserable.

Klaus shrugged again and pushed himself off of the wall. "What you're looking at?" He asked instead of answering her question and peered over her shoulder. Jenna turned back to the display case. "Oh, just everything I wasn't in High School." Much to Klaus' confusion she laughed at that.

"What were you like?" he asked her and for a moment Jenna thought Klaus looked genuinely interested. "I guess you could say I was a party girl. I'm a lot younger than my sister, the baby of the family. I always got what I wanted. I stayed out late, got drunk or high, I used to dance on tables…stuff like that." Jenna smiled and when she was looking over at Klaus again he was openly grinning at her. She immediately became suspicious and narrowed her eyes, "What?"

Klaus held his hands up in surrender, but the smile remained on his lips. "You would've fit into the 20's perfectly. I think you would've loved it." For a moment the hybrid turned thoughtful and bit the inside of his cheek, a gesture Jenna came to associate with scheming or worse. So when he offered her his hand and looked at her expectantly, she hesitated.

They were both silent and the music still floated from the gym into the hall. "We're at a dance and we're perfectly dressed for it. It would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste." When Jenna still looked skeptical he asked, "Would you like to dance?"

She really hadn't expected that. His hand was still outstretched towards her and she wondered if she should take it. Jenna was almost certain she could touch him even though she realized now that they never had. All this time and they never once touched. But there was also something else. It felt like taking his hand meant making an important decision, except she didn't know what she was deciding. Rationally, her killer just asked her to dance, but Jenna realized that she no longer thought of Klaus that way. After everything he had become some sort of ally. Not quite a friend, but someone you could count on in certain situations.

Stop overthinking this, Jenna told herself and slowly put her hand into the hybrid's waiting one. Klaus had clearly surprised her with his question which he understood, because he surprised himself with it. It was the way her eyes got brighter when she had talked about her past that intrigued him. When her hand finally touched his it didn't feel as cold as he would've expected. Instead the light electric current was back. The music had changed to a slower tune and the hybrid drew the ghost closer to him. Klaus' left hand held Jenna's right one while the other snaked around her waist and rested on the small of her back. They turned in slow circles for a while before Jenna finally relaxed into his touch and leaned in a little closer.

It was Klaus who broke the silence between them eventually, "Where you've been all day?"

"Mostly lost in my own head." Jenna answered vaguely. "The whole rapid change of emotions finally wore me out I guess and I just needed a little more time to myself."

"You seem to have found a way to control it. At least you stopped breaking things." They both laughed a little about that. Jenna wasn't sure if she had really figured anything out. She was in control of herself tonight, but wasn't sure what tomorrow would bring.

Klaus leaned in closer and put his mouth to her ear, "You know, for a while I thought you might actually be a figment of my imagination and none of this is real." Jenna didn't really know how to answer to that so she kept her mouth shut and tried to ignore the tickle his breath caused. "But I guess…" Klaus pushed Jenna slightly away and spun her in a circle before he drew her close again, "…this is as real as it gets."

Suddenly they were really close and looking straight into each other's eyes. With just a few inches left between their faces it seemed that none of the two really knew where to go from here. They had stopped dancing and stood in the middle of the hall. The music slowly faded away and Jenna wasn't sure where to look anymore. Whatever was happening here she didn't really know how to handle it. The sound of a door opening made Jenna turn her head a little to the side and she caught a movement in the corner of her eye. The footsteps got louder which made her break eye contact with Klaus and turn her head further to the side.

Klaus was telling her something, but Jenna was no longer listening. All her attention was on the figure approaching them. Jenna let go of Klaus and took a few steps back. It took her brain a few moments to really understand who she was seeing coming down the corridor. "This can't be right. Klaus, look." Jenna whispered and pointed down the hall. The sharp intake of breath beside her told Jenna that she wasn't imagining Alaric walking towards them.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Klaus asked. His body tensed automatically and he got ready to attack.

Alaric shrugged, "Apparently your mother had planned ahead. I heard you killed her again and sent her back to the other side." Alaric reached into his jacket pocket and took the white oak stake out, "I think that after one thousand years it is finally time for you to join her."

Jenna stood frozen and watched the scene unfold in front of her. So many questions went through her head, but Jenna couldn't come up with a single answer. Alaric had chosen death over becoming a vampire. She had been there when he died. What had changed?

The two opponents were not losing anymore words and almost simultaneously attacked each other. It all happened almost too fast for Jenna to comprehend. First Klaus pushed Alaric against the row of lockers, but then Alaric had Klaus pinned against the opposite wall the next second. Alaric was a least as strong as the hybrid, so it was no surprise that the power struggle went on and on until Alaric somehow tripped Klaus in an unobservant moment and the hybrid landed on his back. Alaric was on him not a second later. He was going to stake Klaus with as much force as he could and raised his arm. Luckily Klaus was fast enough and put both his hands up and stopped Alaric's hand and the stake right above his heart. Alaric leaned more of his weight down on him and Klaus' hands started to shake.

„Do something!" Klaus managed to spit out through gritted teeth. That's my cue, Jenna thought and snapped out of her thoughts. Without further hesitation she kneeled down beside them and gripped the lower end of the stake. She started to pull and push, but between Alaric pushing down and Klaus pushing up, it was no use. They both held the stake in a death grip. She tried again with more force, but it wouldn't work.

Jenna exhaled loudly and got up off the floor. She took a few steps back before she threw herself against Alaric with enough force to make him sway over to the side. It wasn't much, but Alaric loosened his grip on the stake and Klaus was able to push him off of him which also knocked Jenna back on her butt.

Alaric skidded along the floor a little on his back before he came to a stop and got up again. "Who's your little friend helping you?" Alaric scanned the hallway, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. As far as he could tell the hybrid was the only one here with him.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Klaus was still a little out of breath, but managed a sly smile anyway. Alaric seemed to consider his answer for a moment. Or maybe he was just getting ready to attack again, Jenna thought and got up off the floor herself.

"We should go now." Jenna said and slowly started to back away. "Oh, I don't know, it's just starting to get interesting." Klaus laughed and watched Alaric's growing confusion.

"Who are you talking to?" the hunter asked, but before anyone else had a chance to say anything, the double doors a little ways down the hall opened again to reveal a tousled Stefan followed by a slightly out of breath Elena.

"I told you to stay out of this, Stefan." Apparently Stefan and Elena already had a run in with Alaric. How could I not have known about any of this, Jenna asked herself and got lost in her own head again. Sure, she hadn't been very observant over the last week. She had been lost in her own grief; she hadn't wanted to be around anyone. You just couldn't catch a break in this town.

Elena grabbed Alaric's arm, "You don't have to do this." She tried to reason with him, but he seemed unimpressed.

"That's the thing, Elena. I do have to do this." Alaric was going to turn away from her and attack Klaus again when Elena tightened her hold on him. She had watched Alaric die once and she didn't want to live through it a second time. The human Alaric would've taken one look at the huge eyes looking up at him, begging him to stop and would've given in. This however was recently turned Alaric who felt nothing anymore and had only one goal to achieve now.

"Let go of me, Elena." Alaric demanded, but of course that only brought out Elena's stubborn side.

"Elena, back away" Stefan warned her and Jenna couldn't agree more with him. She silently prayed for Elena to listen to someone for once in her life.

"Please, Alaric, stop. If you kill Klaus then all the others will die with him. Stefan, Caroline and Tyler, even Damon, they'll all die." Elena pleaded with Alaric to stop, but he seemed just as unimpressed with her as before. Elena just didn't understand that he had no choice in this matter; Esther had made sure of that. The only thing to do now was to get it over with as soon as possible.

"I don't have time for this." Alaric simply threw Elena backwards against the lockers and she hit her head hard. Elena sank to the floor and Stefan was right by her side to inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Alaric was attacking Klaus again, but this time it was less of a power struggle as before. Jenna watched Klaus almost effortlessly outmaneuver Alaric's blows. Her attention was divided between the two fighting vampires and her niece.

Elena touched the back of her head where it throbbed painfully. "Stefan, I don't feel so good." As soon as Elena saw her bloody hand she fainted and fell against Stefan who caught her instinctively. For a moment Stefan seemed to have an internal struggle about the human blood right in front of him, but it only lasted two seconds, because his first priority was to make sure Elena was okay. He took one last worried look over to Alaric and then he and Elena were gone. Jenna was sure Elena would be fine. She was with Stefan and Jenna trusted him to look after her.

Suddenly Alaric came crashing down on the floor beside her and she jumped a little in surprise. "What's wrong? Was that the best you got?" Klaus taunted and came to a stop besides Jenna. He had almost died before, but now he seemed to enjoy himself. Alaric however didn't get up off the floor again. It seemed like he was fighting to stay conscious.

"Interesting" Klaus muttered and turned to Jenna, "You're right, it's time to go." Jenna gave him a confused look and looked back and forth between the both men, "You're not going to kill him?"

"I don't think it'll be this easy. I've dealt with enough witches to recognize their little magic tricks." He grinned at Jenna and took one more look at Alaric on the floor. There it was again, Jenna thought, that superior, smug look on his face. He knew something Jenna probably wouldn't be able to guess in a hundred years. She sighed and watched Klaus' retreating back for a moment, before she stepped over Alaric who still lay on the floor looking a little groggy. With an uneasy feeling she followed Klaus out of the school.


	11. End Of The Line

**11**

Jenna Sommers stood in the middle of the Mikaelson's living room watching the blood get drained out of her niece. With the way this day had started she really shouldn't be so surprised that it would end this way.

**xxxxxx**

_Klaus had paced the room for what seemed the millionth time and it was beginning to make Jenna nervous. "Would you stop? Why are you in evil planning mode anyway?"_

_That got the hybrid's attention and he stopped, "Evil planning mode? I think I never heard that one before." He smiled at Jenna, but instead of giving her an actual answer he simply resumed his pacing. Jenna sighed and sank deeper into the couch. She knew he was plotting something and she would bet anything it had to do with Alaric, but as always she wouldn't know until it happened. When both of them heard the front door shut their heads turned simultaneously in the direction of the intruder. _

"_Alaric is holding Elena and Caroline hostage." Stefan Salvatore had not lost any time with unnecessary chit chat and had launched right into his speech as soon as he entered the room. "He's still at the school, because he has no daylight ring, so this should make it easier to corner him."_

_Klaus smiled at him lazily, "And you're telling me this because…" _

_Stefan sighed and was visibly trying not to lose his patience, "Because we could really need a hybrid with us. Damon and I are strong, but you're stronger. We figure he can't take all three of us at once and Bonnie has a plan to put him down."_

"_Does she now? And you just want me to walk in there and trust you?" It was phrased like a question, but it sounded more like mockery._

"_Please, Klaus, we really need your help with this one." _

_Klaus spread his arms wide and smiled, "Well, since you asked nicely." _

**xxxxxx**

In hindsight this was when Jenna should have realized something was wrong. In all this time when had Klaus simply agreed to help without something in return? But of course she wanted her niece and Caroline save, so she didn't really question it at the time. The plan was simple enough. Corner Alaric, establish a blood connection and Bonnie would work her magic in order to stop Alaric's heart. This would give them enough time to tie him up and bury him someplace where he would be no one's problem anymore. Of course, Klaus had a different plan.

**xxxxxx**

_Jenna was only an observer this time around. There wasn't much she could do, but it would've driven her crazy to just sit on a couch and wait. A decision she slowly came to regret, because as soon as they all had entered the school it all became a whirlwind of action and her emotions were send on a rollercoaster ride. While Caroline had literally run into Klaus, Jenna watched Damon and Stefan attack Alaric, who was holding a struggling Elena against the lockers. Taking a glimpse at both girls, Jenna saw they were both hurt and scared. What the hell had Alaric been doing to them?_

_Even though it was two against one, Alaric had no problems with snapping first Stefan's neck and then Damon's. He took a look at them to make sure they really weren't moving anymore, when he was surprised by Klaus who rammed his fingers into Alaric's chest, establishing the connection Bonnie would need to perform her magic._

**xxxxxx**

A low moan brought Jenna back to the present. Elena slumped further into the chair she was sitting in as her blood was perpetually filling blood bag after blood bag. She was barely conscious anymore.

"What did you do?" Jenna started towards her niece, but Klaus blocked her way.

"I decided to end this little charade we've all been playing once and for all." He turned to look at Elena and seemed almost sad when he addressed Jenna again, "You would've been a great student, you know? Too bad, you're about to hate me."

**xxxxxx**

_Jenna gasped when she heard the sickening snap of Klaus' wrist. With one swift movement Alaric flung Klaus against the wall. When he started to advance on the hybrid Elena's voice stopped him. "Don't!" _

_Again Jenna gasped as she turned to Elena and saw her standing there holding a knife to her throat._

"_What do you want now? Don't make me regret not killing you", Alaric spun around and threatened her._

"_I think I figured out why you haven't killed me. You need me, because Esther used my blood to create you. She didn't want to create another monster that would live forever, so she bound you to me. If I die, you die." Jenna couldn't have been more proud of Elena in this moment. She was standing up for herself and her friends despite being scared out of her mind._

"_That's ridiculous." Alaric tried to laugh, but it didn't sound very convincing. _

"_Oh, really?" Elena applied more pressure on the knife she held to her throat and blood started to drip down her neck. _

"_Stop, stop, don't do this!" Alaric screamed at Elena and wanted to grab for the knife when his neck suddenly snapped and a smiling Klaus stood in his place instead._

"_Not just a pretty face after all." Klaus laughed before he grabbed Elena with vampire speed. Within a blink of the eyes they were gone and Jenna was left staring at an empty spot with a sinking feeling in her gut._

**xxxxxx**

Klaus stood with both his hands braced against the back of Elena's chair and watched Jenna watch her niece, "Don't worry, unlike last time it's a complete painless death. As her blood is leaving her body, her eyes are getting heavy, her mind a little foggy and before she knows it she will have fallen asleep." Jenna's eyes snapped up to meet Klaus'. "Except this time she won't wake up again."

"Why kill her? Why don't you just take some of her blood and let her live? This way you will lose your blood source for good. There is no other family member left of her bloodline." Jenna was desperate for a way out of this, but she couldn't think of anything.

"I'm done with the doppelgangers, the Salvatores and Mystic Falls. I'm leaving this place, so I decided to tie up all loose ends. And of course this takes care of the little problem my mother created for us."

And then it finally dawned on Jenna, "You knew. That's why you hadn't killed Alaric in the school. You knew he was tied to Elena."

Klaus pushed away from the chair and shrugged, "He went down after she went down, it didn't take much to figure out they were connected. The only problem was to get Elena away from her vampire protectors." Klaus laughed and came closer to Jenna, "And then Stefan walked in begging for help to save his girl. It was almost too easy, don't you think?"

It took Jenna everything not to punch him in the face. It must've shown, because Klaus grabbed both of her arms and held her in place, "You and I are the same, Jenna. I thought maybe you would be able to understand. Don't think of it as losing your niece, think of it as saving your nephew. How long before he gets dragged into this mess. Do you really think Alaric wouldn't hurt him?"

"We are not the same." Jenna protested and struggled to get out of his grip, but it was no use. Klaus laughed at her attempt to get away and continued, "We both want what we want and we don't stop until we get it."

"I am nothing like you." Jenna spit back at him.

"Oh, really?" Klaus laughed without humor, "Was it not you who threatened me with a stake to my back and what was that with Caroline? You used her to get your point across. Why her, Jenna? Why did it have to be Caroline? Because you knew that I liked her and you wanted to hit me where it mattered. You said it yourself; you did what I did with Jeremy."

At this point Jenna had stopped her struggling and just stared at him. She decided that he had gone completely mad. She was nothing like him. "I did those things because I wanted to protect my family, but you use people, threaten and kill them simply to get what you want. You're the selfish one. The only selfish thing I've done was to help you stay alive, because you're my only connection to this world that I have left."

And just to be nasty she added in her best condescending voice, "No wonder you couldn't get Caroline to go for you. Who would love a murderer like you?" Klaus let go of Jenna as if her words had burned him.

Jenna saw the hurt flash across his eyes before it was quickly replaced by anger. Before another word could leave his mouth, the room was flooded with people. Jenna was shocked to see both Damon and Tyler grabbing one of Klaus' arms and hold him down while out of the corner of her eye she saw Matt rush over to Elena. The next moment Stefan appeared and dug his finders into the hybrids chest.

"Oh my god!" Jenna knew what that meant. It was the same thing Klaus had done to Alaric earlier. Somewhere Bonnie was probably doing some spell now that would stop his heart. Would one of their plans actually work out this time around?

"What's going on?" Klaus demanded to know. He was obviously surprised by the attack and tried to struggle but Jenna guessed whatever was happening already took effect. His struggling became less and his eyes found hers across the room. Even after all that happened today he still managed to look betrayed and Jenna couldn't figure out why. She had nothing to do with this and was just as surprised as him.

Klaus' breathing became labored. Jenna guessed this was not a painless way to die. She watched Klaus as they slowly lowered him to floor with his eyes still trained on hers. Even after everything that just happened she wanted to help him somehow, but there was nothing left to do. His skin lost all its color and the veins underneath popped out. His eyes simply kept looking at her, but she was sure he no longer saw anything. She knew he wasn't actually dead, that it was only a temporary state, but she didn't want to see any of it anymore and left the house as fast as she could. On her way out she passed Tyler and Stefan carrying a coffin inside. Jenna guessed that meant that no one would see Klaus Mikaelson again anytime soon.

**xxxxxx**

Outside Jenna heard Matt's voice coming from his truck. "What are you doing?" As she appeared on the backseat she saw Damon bite his wrist and place it on Elena's mouth, forcing her to swallow his blood.

"She lost too much blood. She won't make it without a little help." Matt wanted to protest, but he knew it was better to not anger the already pissed off vampire further. Besides, Elena looked so white she might as well have been dead.

"Drive her out of town. I don't care where, just far away. We'll deal with Alaric next. When that's done, we'll call." Damon took one last look at Elena before he turned back to Matt, "No matter what, you don't let her out of your sight."

After the door slammed shut, Matt started the car. As they started down the driveway Jenna turned back one more time looking at the mansion she couldn't wait to get away from. Right before she turned back she thought she caught a glimpse of someone entering the house, but the house was growing smaller with distance and Jenna focused her attention on the road ahead.

**xxxxxx**

Elena was slowly regaining consciousness. The steady rocking around her felt comforting and it took her a while to force her eyes open. For a moment she felt disoriented, but once she realized that she was in a car she sat up with a start. She panicked and searched her arms for the IVs.

"Hey, easy there, it's alright." It was Matt's voice and Elena immediately calmed down. Matt reached over and put a reassuring hand on Elena's shoulder. "What happened? Where are we going?"

"We're getting out of town until the whole Alaric thing is over." Matt knew Elena long enough to know that she would protest, that's why he cut her off before she even had a chance to respond, "Don't say it. We're leaving and that's final." Elena closed her mouth again and nodded. She still felt a little woozy and decided not to argue for once. It had been a strange night so far and she almost died again. She's lost count of how many times she dodged death by now.

Looking out the window Elena tried to figure out where exactly they were now. Elena got a little nervous then. Soon they would have to cross the bridge to get out of town. She always puts on a brave face, but whenever she comes near that bridge, she can't help but remember the night her parents died. The night she should've died, too.

"On the upside, we did get Klaus. He's probably on his way to the Atlantic Ocean in his coffin or something." The teenagers both smiled at each other while Jenna felt a little torn about it. It was only a second, but it was all it took. By the time they both turned their faces back to the road Elena screamed, "Matt, watch out!"

Out of nowhere Rebekah had turned up on the middle of the bridge. Instinctively Matt tried not to run the vampire over, but of course that's what Rebekah had wanted. Matt lost control over the vehicle and the truck went over the side of the bridge. Once they hit the water the truck was sinking fast. As the water rose inside Matt and Elena tried to get out, but the pressure from the water surrounding them didn't let them open the doors.

Jenna had been completely caught off guard by this turn of events. She knew she could get out and she probably didn't need to breathe either, but what about Elena and Matt. She didn't want to leave them here to die. Jenna took a deep breath, more out of habit than necessity, and vanished out of the car. She turned up again outside, but she soon had to admit that it was no use. She could not open the damn door. Inside the car the struggling had stopped and Jenna went back. Elena and Matt took their last deep breaths before they were completely submerged in the water. They both knew they wouldn't make it out of here alive.

In the end Matt was the first to run out of breath. Elena tried to shake him awake again when she noticed a movement outside of the truck. The relief on Elena's face was easy to see when she recognized the approaching shadow as Stefan. He must have followed them for some reason.

Jenna almost believed that this mess would somehow resolve itself, when Elena pointed to Matt when Stefan wanted to get her out of the car. Of course, Elena Gilbert would rather sacrifice herself if it meant she would be saving someone else. What Jenna couldn't quite believe was how easily Stefan agreed with her. Then again, they had no time to waste. He probably thought that he would be fast enough to get Elena out of the water. It was probably the lack of oxygen, but Elena looked rather at peace with that decision, as if she had already decided that it was time to die and that scared Jenna more than anything else. Would she maybe struggle more if she knew what Damon had done to her earlier? Or did she maybe know and simply wasn't fighting it anymore?

When Stefan swam away with Matt Elena followed them with her eyes. Once Elena could no longer see them she was about to turn back when she stopped and opened her eyes a little further, a little smile forming on her lips. Jenna studied Elena's expression and wondered if she could see her. Elena seemed to try and reach for her, but she couldn't be sure. Maybe it was only the water lifting her now almost lifeless body. Jenna didn't care and grabbed her niece's hand. The door was open now, but Jenna knew even if she managed to drag Elena out of the car and out of the water, Elena had not enough breath left to hold on that long. Jenna couldn't save her, but her niece wouldn't have to die alone. Jenna held on as tight as she could as Elena's eyes became lifeless. The last breath of air left Elena's mouth and with it she died.

**xxxxxx**

Stefan returned shortly after Elena had died. He pulled her out of the car and lay her down on the street. Jenna, who kneeled beside her niece, thought she heard him cry, but she didn't really pay attention. All her attention was focused on Elena's lifeless body. Matt was lying beside her. He was unconscious, but he was still alive.

"I'm so sorry." Jenna whispered and kissed her niece's forehead. Silent tears started to roll down Jenna's face. She wasn't just sorry for not being able to save her, but for what her niece would become. Jenna was pretty sure Elena was not gone forever. Damon had fed her his blood and Jenna knew what that meant. She had lived through it herself.

"I know you never wanted this, but you'll pull through. You always do. Goodbye, Elena." In the distance sirens could be heard. The ambulance would be here soon, but Jenna wouldn't watch them take her niece away. Instead she had made a decision and vanished.

* * *

><p><strong>It's short and rushed, but this chapter cost me my last nerve and I just want to move on :)<strong>


	12. Hometown Glory

**12 Hometown Glory**

_*a few weeks later*_

He should've known it wasn't her. She had been all smiles and laughs when she walked up behind him in the woods earlier. He thought she even made a joke. It didn't seem like the proper reaction to someone who tried to drain her niece of all her blood. However, it had been weeks since he saw her last and he guessed he had been simply surprised.

"_Jenna", a smile broke out across his face, "I see you finally decided to come back."_

"_I guess it was time." She smiled and stepped closer to him. "What have you been up to out here? Got a lead on the cure yet?"_

"_You know about the cure?" This was when he got suspicious._

"_Sure, I've been back for a while now and I've heard things. I think you should just give it to Silas, you know. I mean, it would be the best for all of us." Well, now he just knew something wasn't right._

"_You're not Jenna." It wasn't a question._

"_No, I'm not." Before Klaus had time to react Jenna appeared behind him and brought him with one swift kick down to his knees. "I want this cure. Next time I'll pay you a visit, you better have it."_

Next thing he knew he had a piece of the white oak stuck in his back. A piece he desperately tried to get out of his body. He could feel it moving and burning him from the inside. He needed to get it out before it would reach his heart.

He was dying and where was she? Somewhere lying on a beach? Or maybe just around the corner laughing while he was miserable? This was all her fault. He hadn't been this angry since he was put into a coffin a few weeks back. Klaus knew none of what had happened that night was Jenna's fault and maybe on some level even he could admit that he had it coming, but he needed someone to blame and she was perfect for that, seeing how she wasn't here to defend herself to him. He was angry with her. She had just watched them put him down like a dog and then she had left.

It was only a small comfort that Rebekah had gone after Elena after she had learned what had happened to him, but it was enough. It made him love his little sister a little more. She could be as angry with him as she wanted, but they were family and he knew she would come back to him eventually, no matter how long it took. At the moment, of course, she looked at him with concern whenever she saw him. It probably had to do with the fact that she had walked in on her big brother talking to himself several times. Klaus remembered one time in particular.

_He had been pacing his room mumbling to himself unintelligibly for quite some time now. Eventually he sighed and turned his eyes up to the ceiling. "Is this your idea of a joke or something? I know I've been out of line. I'm sorry, really I am."_

_He waited, but there was still nothing. "You know your niece is about to go off the rails. Don't you care anymore? She's also started a romance with Damon. Personally I'm still rooting for Stefan and I know you like him better, too. Maybe we could both scheme a little and break them up again. That could be fun."_

_He waited another couple of moments before anger washed over him and he screamed, "Show yourself already!" _

_A knock on the door brought him out of his angry conversation with the ceiling and made him turn to see his sister looking at him with a concerned look on her face._

"_Nick, who are you talking to?" Rebekah asked tentatively. _

_He didn't answer that right away. Who was he talking to? A ghost that only he could see, but he somehow lost sight of? That didn't sound like an acceptable answer, so instead he went with, "No one, I'm just blowing off some steam."_

_Rebekah crossed her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes at her brother. "You know, this isn't the first time I noticed you doing that."_

"_I guess I must be going crazy then." He smiled at his sister, but it didn't quite reach his eyes like a real smile would._

"_Well, you're officially scaring me now, so I'll be leaving you to whatever it is you're doing." She felt like she was missing something, but couldn't figure out what it was. With a last uncertain look around her brother's bedroom Rebekah had left again._

Thank you, Rebekah, for not being interested enough to find out what that was all about, Klaus thought. After that he was more careful. He should've just stopped altogether, but time and time again he found himself asking her to come back. He would never admit to it, but he felt a little lonely sometimes. It was a constant up and down with his sister, Elijah was nowhere to be found and everyone else was dead. Even annoying little Kol was no longer here to antagonize his older brother. Klaus bet he was probably having the time of his life on the other side.

Not having any friends left in this town made it a little harder to reach out for help. The one time he really needed her and she wouldn't show up. Jenna had been annoying and whiny, yet helpful to have around. Most of all she didn't leave. At first that was irritating, but eventually he felt himself warm up to his ghostly companion. That was all well and good, but it didn't help him now. He supposed he could call Caroline, but he really wasn't in the mood for another judgmental lecture. It looks like he would have to do it himself, like always.

Klaus inhaled deeply and tried again to reach the stupid piece of wood.

**xxxxxx**

Jenna Sommers had no intention of returning to Mystic Falls again, at least not anytime soon. It's been weeks since she had left, but time holds no meaning when you're dead and she felt that it simply hadn't been long enough. Besides, she rather enjoyed visiting places she never had a chance to see when she was still alive. Ever since it had clicked in her head, she was no longer bound to her former restrictions. She had always wanted to see Europe and this was her chance now. This week she chose Rome as her stop on her ghostly sightseeing tour.

As she walked across the Piazza di Spagna she felt a tuck at her heart. It wasn't the first time this happened and subconsciously she knew that meant something wasn't right, but so far she managed to ignore it just fine. Returning would only mean that she would have to witness more destruction and death. That much she was sure about. The only good thing was that the mess with Alaric had been taken care of, but the price had been much too high. Elena was a vampire now because of it and Jeremy had turned into some kind of vampire hunter, as far as Jenna could tell.

The only time Jenna's conscience had gotten the better of her and she returned to Mystic Falls to check in on her family, had granted her a first row seat to Jeremy beheading one of Klaus' hybrids. That was all she had to see to realize that they were living very different lives now. There was no place left for her there. At least that's what she told herself. She had also fought the urge to check up on Klaus while she was in Mystic Falls. Was he still in a coffin or had he escaped? Jenna had decided it didn't matter, though she couldn't help but wonder. Being free was great and all, but she was also so alone again. She might not be bound to former restrictions anymore, but she was still invisible to the world around her.

Jenna shook her head to clear her thoughts. Still, the tucking wouldn't stop. It seemed more insistent than ever. Someone was very much in distress and with a sigh Jenna finally gave in.

Even before she opened her eyes again she knew something was different. She had expected to be at her house or at least somewhere where she would find either Elena or Jeremy, but when she opened her eyes she found herself standing in Klaus' home. Strange sounds came from the next room, so Jenna figured she might as well see what this is all about.

A shirtless Klaus stood in front of the fire place. His right side was turned to her, but he seemed too occupied with looking into the mirror above the fireplace to notice her entrance. Apparently he was trying to reach something on his back, but if the frustrating sounds he made were any indication, he couldn't. He was also definitely not trapped in a coffin, Jenna noted.

_His arm is too short._ No sooner had Jenna thought that, Klaus had grabbed his shoulder and dislocated it with a painful crack in order to be able to reach further. Jenna couldn't help herself and screamed at him to stop. Klaus spun around and faced her with a painful expression on his face. Sweat covered his entire body and his breathing was rapid. Basically, he looked ready to break down and cry, Jenna thought.

"Oh my God, what are you doing?" Jenna took a couple of steps towards Klaus, but he stepped away from her. His back was now fully turned towards the mirror and Jenna could see the wound on his back in the reflection. "What happened to you?"

If he had been surprised to see her he didn't let it show. "If you can't tell, I'm slowly dying here."

**xxxxxx**

Klaus leaned against the couch with a pain filled expression on his face. He had been in this position for a while now, but Jenna still seemed rather unimpressed by it. She sat in the armchair across from him with her legs crossed and examined her nails. She had carefully removed all trace of emotion from her face. No way was she going to make it this easy for him.

"Please, just pull it out." It was not the first time he demanded Jenna's help. She noticed he added a please now, though. He was getting more desperate. "Just tell me what I need to do for you to help me." At least this time Klaus was sure it really was Jenna and not Silas playing mind games. Silas didn't strike him as patient enough to just sit and ignore him without saying a single word.

Jenna pondered this for a moment before she finally looked at him again, "An apology would be nice."

Klaus' breath was coming in short, hard gasps, but somehow he still managed to sounds as arrogant as ever, "An apology for what? Come on, I thought we were friends or at least on our way there."

"Friends don't try to kill their friend's nieces." Jenna crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at him reproachfully.

"What do you mean tried? I succeeded, remember?" As soon as the words had left his mouth he regretted them. Reminding her that he actually killed her and her niece wasn't exactly the best move and Jenna reacted just as badly as he thought she would.

"It looks like karma is finally coming back around to you." Jenna didn't even bother storming out of the room, she simply vanished.

"No wait, come back!" Klaus called after her, but the ghost did not return.

**xxxxxx**

Jenna was so angry, she didn't even think about where she was going. She was vaguely aware that she was walking down a street, while mumbling to herself about a stupid hybrid. It was the lingering burning smell that made her take in her surroundings at last.

"What the hell!" Jenna couldn't believe her eyes. What was this ruin? It certainly was not her house, her home. Jenna looked around to make sure she got it right, but she really was looking at her house or what was left of it.

"What happened here?" Jenna asked herself out loud and took a few steps closer to what used to be her home. There must have been a fire, Jenna thought. Hopefully no one got hurt. Suddenly she didn't feel so good about ignoring all the little tucks at her heart. Maybe she should have come back sooner. With a horrible feeling Jenna concentrated first on Jeremy.

**xxxxxx**

She found her nephew together with Matt, who looked a lot better than the last time Jenna had seen him. She was glad he seemed to be ok. They were slowly walking her way. Both were dressed in shorts and t-shirts and were covered in sweat. Jenna figured they must've been running.

Ok, that's good. Running means they're fine. Jenna relaxed a little and started to follow them as soon as they had passed her.

"How's your sister?" Matt asked still trying to catch his breath.

Jeremy answered in a concerned voice, "No change. To be honest, I have no idea what it will take to get my sister back. I just hope we'll find a way soon. You know, the trail of bodies she's leaving behind her is getting longer every day."

_Trail of bodies._ That didn't sound good. Was Elena having trouble adjusting to her new life? Jenna always thought that with Stefan around she would be fine. She concentrated on Elena and hoped it wouldn't turn out to be too bad.

**xxxxxx**

Jenna landed in the middle of an argument between Elena and Stefan. One they seemed to have had more than once, judging by the tiredness in Stefan's voice.

"It doesn't have to be this way. I know what it feels like to never want to feel again, but it's not the answer. It will only be worse in the end." Stefan was following behind Elena who was licking some blood from her lips. He was trying to get through to her, but he had no luck.

"Save it Stefan, I'm not interested." It was the tone of her voice that surprised Jenna the most. She had never seen Elena this cold towards anyone, let alone Stefan. Jenna sensed problems on that front. "I do what I want, when I want it and no one tells me what to do anymore."

While Jenna thought that this was not the worst of attitudes and certainly a view she had wished for Elena when she was still human, it didn't seem to be very healthy for Vampire-Elena or the innocent around her.

Stefan simply shook his head. He seemed ready to give up, but Jenna knew he would never give up on the girl he loved. Then Damon entered the room and a grin broke out on Elena's face, "See, your brother doesn't mind. Why can't you just let it go, Stefan? We could have so much fun together."

Damon and Stefan looked at each other for a moment in silent communication. Jenna might not have been here in a while, but she could tell that their relationship wasn't great at the moment. If she had to guess it was because of the girl literally standing between them. Not really a surprise. The conversation ended with Stefan shaking his head again and leaving the room.

"He'll come around." Damon tried to make Elena feel better, except she really didn't feel bad, Jenna noticed.

"Who cares?" Elena grabbed Damon's face and kissed him and she really didn't hold anything back.

"Oh. My. God!" Jenna's mouth practically fell open and she just stared. She tried to look away, but she was so shocked she couldn't even think clearly anymore. First her house and now her niece. Had she somehow fallen down a rabbit hole without noticing?

When Damon grabbed Elena's ass, Jenna quickly placed her hands in front of her eyes and got out of there as fast as she could. It was time to get answers. Unfortunately, there was only one place she would get them.

**xxxxxx**

Klaus looked considerably worse than when she had left him before. His body was still covered in sweat and he once again clawed at his back. Without losing time she made herself known, but didn't give Klaus a chance to say anything. "First of all, what the hell happened to my house? And why is Elena acting like she doesn't give a damn about anything anymore?"

"Probably because she doesn't. She flipped the switch. You know a thing or two about that, don't you?" Klaus stopped talking for a moment to catch his breath, "As for your house, I believe Elena burned it down."

"Why would she turn her emotions off? I get that she never wanted to be a vampire, but this seems a little drastic." Jenna took a seat on the piano bench and stared at Klaus, waiting for him to shed some light on the situation.

"Funny story, actually. However, I had nothing to do with it, at least not much. By the way, have you found out about your niece's new love interest?" Jenna flinched slightly. That was another thing she wanted to ask about, but it could wait.

"Tell me what you know." Jenna demanded.

"Don't you think you should pull this freaking stake out of my back first?" Klaus suggested, but already knew what she would say to that.

Jenna shook her head, "No, first you tell me what's going on here and then I'll help you."

"And how do I know you won't just leave me here again?" Their eyes locked. This statement seemed to hold more meaning, but Jenna chose to ignore that.

"Because I promise I won't. I keep my word. Believe it or not, but not everyone is planning and scheming at every turn. You tell me and I'll help you. It's that simple." Klaus considered this and decided that he believed her. He hated having to show weakness, but the pain in his back was killing him, literally. The faster he would answer her questions, the sooner this torture would be over.

Klaus took a deep breath and rushed through his explanation, "I'll try to keep it short then. The new bad in town is called Silas. He is two thousand years old and he screws with people's minds. My brother Kol, who was killed by your nephew by the way, tried to warn us about him, but of course your lovely niece and her stupid companions went right ahead and unleashed him. I wasn't there when that happened, but whatever happened on that island it eventually lead to Elena turning her emotions off. Also, there is a cure that supposedly makes an immortal human again and Silas wants it. Problem is, there is only one dose and I don't know who has it at the moment, but I'm pretty sure there are some who would love to use it on me."

This was a lot to take in. Jenna had only been gone a few short weeks. How could everything go down the drain so fast? And what was this about an island? She had so many questions, but Jenna decided to keep her main focus at the situation at hand, "And you got a stake stuck in your back because…"

"…because Silas wants me to get the cure for him. He's good, you know. He can make himself appear as anyone he wants. He can read people's minds and make your worst fears and nightmares come true."

He's really scared, Jenna thought. She let her eyes wander over the hybrids trembling body again. If someone has the power to make a powerful hybrid this scared then Jenna really didn't want to meet this Silas guy.

"I'm sorry about your brother." Jenna mumbled, but she figured he'd hear her. In a louder voice she continued, "So what's the plan? There has to be a way to stop him, right?"

A frustrated and pain filled scream came from Klaus, "I can feel the stake moving closer to my heart. You have to pull it out now, please. It's your turn now. You promised!"

Jenna took a deep breath. He was right; she had promised as much and she wasn't going back on her word now. Positioning herself behind Klaus, she saw the wound up close for the first time. It didn't look good and there was blood smeared everywhere from his hands that had tried to reach the spot. Looking at her hands and then back at the wound, Jenna wondered out loud, "How am I supposed to get it out exactly. I mean, you don't really want me to put my fingers in, do you?" God, she hoped not.

"Wait here," came Klaus' reply. He disappeared and a few seconds later returned with a pair of pliers in his hands. He held them out to Jenna and waited for her to take them, but Jenna hesitated. When she had arrived in Rome this morning she would've never guessed that this was how her day would progress. When Jenna still didn't move, Klaus grabbed one of her hands and shoved the pliers forcefully into her hand.

"Let's get this over with." Klaus turned around and braced himself against the piano in the room. Jenna lifted the tool and inserted it into the wound. She moved it around a little, noticing how Klaus' hands tightened his hold on the piano. "Are you sure about this? There is nothing here."

"What do you mean there is nothing there? Dig deeper!" Jenna did as she was told and used the tool to dig deeper into the wound, but she still couldn't find anything. Klaus screamed when she twisted the pliers again. "I'm sorry." Jenna apologized, not feeling sorry at all.

She searched the wound thoroughly, but after several tries she gave up. With a quick pull she pulled out of his wound which earned her another painful scream from Klaus.

"I swear there is nothing there. Not even a splinter, let alone a chuck of wood." Jenna tried to explain, but it only seemed to aggravate Klaus further. He spun around and grabbed her upper arms and shook her a little. "You promised you would help me!"

Jenna was at a loss. He wasn't listening to her and she needed him to understand. After she had struggled out of his grip again, Jenna put both her hands on either side of his face and forced him to look straight into her eyes.

With slow words she explained to him again, "Listen to me, there is nothing in your wound." At first he just stared at her, then something seemed to click in his head and the look on his face changed. His next words were barely a whisper, but Jenna thought she heard him say something like, "He got into my head. Silas go into my head."

As he sank down to his knees Jenna went down with him, still holding on to his face. "There was never any pain. He just made me think there was." Suddenly she felt incredibly sad for him and a little angry at herself for letting him make her feel this way. "You took my mind off it." Klaus let his head sink down on Jenna's shoulder and took slow, calming breaths.

Jenna on the other hand was at a loss again. She had never seen Klaus this way and she wasn't sure how one would properly comfort a hybrid. So before she could talk herself out of it by reminding herself why exactly he deserved everything that was happening to him, she reached with both her arms around his shoulder and, despite the sweat, held on tight.

A muffled '_thank you'_ reached her ears and she smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>For once it didn't take me weeks to update this :)The story has about 4-5 chapters left and the rest follows more or less what happened at the end of season 4, but I'll change as much as I need to for it to fit with this story. For example Jeremy didn't die, but Elena still turned her humanity off. <strong>

**And thanks to the lovley people reading my story :)**


	13. The Cure

**13****  
><strong>

Jenna sat cross legged on Elena's bed in the Salvatore House. Her eyes were trained on the small vial in her hand. She didn't mean to be a stalker again, but she wanted to know if Elena would be part of today's graduation ceremony. She had become unpredictable with her change in attitude and everyone seemed to tip toe around her. No one wanted to set her off, because most of the time that ended with a dead body.

The past two weeks had gone by in a blur. Jenna had learned more about Silas, the island he was trapped on, ancient vampire hunters, the cure and sire bonds. She wasn't sure how she felt about the last one in particular. She couldn't imagine what it was like to be sired to someone. She had always thought of herself as a strong and independent woman, so she couldn't understand how someone could suddenly be so dependent on someone else? Or did she simply not understand it correctly? Either way, it was not really an issue anymore since Elena had decided that her emotions were only getting in the way of her newest obsession and turned them off. Now that's something Jenna could relate to. Still, she wished her niece hadn't done it.

While they had been all on that island trying to get the cure, Katherine Pierce had once again the nerve to show up and ruin everything for everyone. Now that's a person with more enemies than you could possibly count, Jenna included.

Jenna hadn't been there and neither was Klaus, but from what both of them could piece together they understood that Katherine had used Jeremy's hunter blood to wake Silas. Somehow that ended in Jeremy's death, like so many times before. His ring brought him back again, but something inside of Elena had snapped and she wasn't quite the same afterwards anymore.

By the time they arrived back home, Klaus was freed from his temporary prison, but still at the house. This part of the story he gladly told her with a smile on his face when he remembered how Elena had seemingly out of the blue announced that she was done with it all. Katherine had taken it too far and she could not be allowed to live any longer.

**xxxxxx**

"_She used and killed Jeremy! She would take my last living relative away from me without thinking twice about it." Elena then turned towards the Salvatore brothers, "She used the two of you and ruined your lives. What happened to hating her? To making her pay for what she did?"_

_As always Stefan had to try to be the voice of reason, "Hating Katherine is not worth your time. Hating her is letting her win."_

_Damon wasn't as subtle, "That crazy bitch will only ruin your live, too. She's a manipulator and she will get back at you for going after her. We're not risking that." _

"_You're right, she will keep on ruining all our lives. She will use everything and everyone against us until she has what she wants. That's why I need to level the playing field since neither one of you seem to be able to do that. I will kill her." By now Elena was breathing hard and pacing the room._

"_You're just scared, because she proofed again that she can get to any one of us, but Elena…" Elena laughed humorlessly and cut Stefan off._

"_Fear will not be an issue." _

_At that, according to Klaus, he had figured out what Elena was talking about and decided to help the girl out. After all, no one else was on her side. He also thought that the whole situation was hilarious, because he wanted Katherine dead, too. "I think this is a brilliant idea, love. You should go for it."_

_All eyes were on Klaus and Elena. The hybrid could tell that still no one had realized what their precious little Elena was about to do. Klaus was even more amused by the fact that if Damon would understand what his girlfriend's intentions were he could simply stop her by telling her to. The sire bond would not allow her to go through with it. However, it was Stefan who caught on first, but his words were lost on Elena who had already begun to shut down._

_Elena took a deep breath, turned to Klaus and looked him dead in the eye, "I'll get her." _

**xxxxxx**

Klaus had left the Gilbert house with a wicked grin, but still claimed he didn't know how any of it had led to the house burning down that same night.

At first Jenna had been angry to learn that Klaus had played a role in Elena's final decision to turn her emotions off, but she got over it rather quickly. There was nothing she could do about it now. Elena would've most likely done it with or without Klaus' encouragement. There were far more important things to worry about now.

"Make sure you're ready. We're leaving right after graduation." Elena pushed the end call button on her phone and threw it on her bed where it landed right in front of Jenna.

Jenna would bet anything that it was Rebekah on the other side of the line. The two vampires had recently formed a surprising alliance. Rebekah wanted nothing more than the cure and Elena wanted nothing more than to kill Katherine. Since Katherine was the one who had the cure it had made sense for them to team up. Even though, no one else found that to be a good thing. Jenna couldn't agree more, that's why she spent most of her time following them around.

The two of them were constantly arguing, but somehow they had managed to actually get a lead on Katherine Pierce's whereabouts, much to Jenna's surprise. Of course Jenna wouldn't miss this. If they really found Katherine and the cure then Jenna wanted to be there. She didn't tell Klaus about this, though. She simply mentioned in passing that she was keeping an eye on Elena for a while and he hadn't questioned her. He and Rebekah had had some argument again which ended with Rebekah storming out of the house, so Jenna doubted he knew what she was up to. Besides, he had been focused on finding the cure himself, just like everyone else it seemed.

Jenna was still staring at the small vial in her hands, rolling it around between her fingers. When she had arrived in the little town of Willoughby, Pennsylvania Jenna had merely been curious and slightly worried about Elena's plans. She wasn't aware just what having the cure could mean for her, she only knew why everyone else wanted it.

Part of her had wished that Rebekah's information would turn out to be false and they would return home. She didn't remember much about Katherine Pierce other than the vampire compelling her to stop using her vervain perfume and to kill herself when she commanded it. Not to forget it was her who had helped trick her into leaving the house on the night of Klaus's ritual.

Thinking back on that, Jenna couldn't deny wanting Katherine to pay, but she feared Elena might not be strong enough to accomplish her goal. No matter how ruthless she may be now, Katherine had centuries on her. Then again, there was still Rebekah who, Jenna was sure, could easily take Katherine.

Willoughby had turned out to be a really nice little town. A lot like Mystic Falls, Jenna remembered thinking, minus the exorbitant amount of death. It hadn't been easy and there were a lot of angry words spoken, but eventually the girls had managed to locate Katherine near the post office. Luckily, since it turned out that Katherine had most of the town compelled, no one stopped them and kept on minding their own business.

**xxxxxx**

"_Search her." Rebekah told Elena while she made sure that lovely Katherine wouldn't try something stupid, like running away. Jenna kept watching the exchange in front of her intently and leaned against one of the nearby cars. It felt weird so see Katherine and Elena stand opposite each other. They were dressed completely different, their hair style was different, but their faces were the absolute same._

_Elena went thoroughly through Katherine's jacket and purse. She even took the time to pat her down. "It's not here."_

"_Like I would carry something this valuable around with me." _

_Rebekah and Elena looked frustrated, but Jenna believed Katherine. She remembered when she had found the white oak stake. Even though no one but Klaus could see her she had still felt the urge to hide the stake in a safe place. Sure Katherine wouldn't take any chances with something this sought after. But where would she have put it? Defeated Jenna had to admit that she didn't know Katherine well enough to even guess._

"_Tell us where it is!" Rebekah demanded while simultaneously pulling roughly on Katherine's hair. Her other hand held on tight to Katherine's upper arm._

"_Why would I give you the cure? It's my ticket to freedom. I'm tired of running from Klaus. After five centuries I just want to be free."_

"_My heart is breaking for you, really." Rebekah mocked and gripped Katherine's hair a little tighter, "Maybe we weren't clear enough about what would happen if you don't cooperate."_

_Katherine scoffed, "As if you would just let me go after you have it. I'm the only one who knows where the cure is. I die and you'll never find it."_

"_I say we'll take our chances." Elena was losing her patience. She came here to kill her doppelganger, not have her talk her ear off. In fact, Jenna was sure that the only reason Elena wasn't trying to stake Katherine right this moment was that she still needed the cure to ensure Rebekah was still on her side. Personally, Elena couldn't care less if she became human again or not. She would gladly hand it over to Rebekah. At least this way no one would want to make her take it against her will. _

"_Ladies, ladies, what is going on here?" Rebekah's sigh upon hearing Damon's voice said it all. None of the girls were particularly happy to see him and Stefan walking up to them, except maybe for Katherine. _

_Rebekah was the first to say something, "You found us then, congratulations."_

"_Well, we figured if you really knew where the cure was then we should follow you to make sure nothing goes wrong." Damon turned to Rebekah then, "Or let the wrong person take it." _

_This remark led to a heated discussion between Rebekah and Damon. Stefan immediately tried to calm everyone down again, while Elena was glaring daggers at Katherine. While everyone was arguing Rebekah had unintentionally loosened her grip on Katherine's arm and hair. Katherine didn't waste any time and took her chance. With as much momentum as she could create she knocked Rebekah back into Stefan and was gone. All this happened almost too fast for Jenna's eyes to see._

"_Dammit, I had her!" To show just how angry she was Elena stepped over to Damon and shoved him. "Stay out of my way and stop trying to fix me!"_

"_Same goes for you!" Elena shouted at Stefan, who was still holding on to Rebekah, before she stalked over to the stolen car she and Rebekah had used to get around._

_Now it was on Jenna not to waste precious time. Katherine had the cure, everyone wanted it and Jenna was going to get it. Katherine was experienced when it came to running away and Jenna figured she wouldn't remain here any longer now that she had been found. She also wouldn't leave without the cure. That's why Jenna became Katherine's shadow for the next few hours._

**xxxxxx**

Thinking about it now, it had been rather easy to get the cure. Compared to everyone else falling over themselves to get it, Jenna hadn't even had to work for it. All Jenna had to do was wait for Katherine to retrieve it and then wait for the right moment to snatch it. And why was it so easy in the end? Because no one figured her to be a threat. No one thought of her. She was invisible and stuck and alone. Maybe she could figure out a way for this little vial to change all that.

Elena had blamed it all on Damon and Stefan of course. She was convinced that if they hadn't showed up she would have the stupid cure and Katherine would be dead by now. She had been furious for days afterwards. It got so bad that Damon and Stefan even changed their tactics and looked Elena up in their cellar. They starved her and tried the whole tough love routine with her. Too bad Elena was smarter than that. She knew the both of them could never really hurt her. So that didn't work.

Jenna wasn't sure when they let her out again. She was simply relieved to see Elena take out her red graduation gown and hat and lay it out. Her face betrayed no real emotion, but Jenna hoped that somewhere deep inside this day actually meant something to her.

Remembering the small vial in her hand again Jenna felt guilty, but she still hadn't figured out what exactly to do with it. Give it to Silas? Probably not a good idea. Tell Klaus about it? She wasn't sure about that. She wanted to trust him, but it seemed whenever she did, he would turn around and do something to make her regret it.

Another possibility would be to take the cure herself. She would be lying if she said that she hadn't thought about it. It was supposed to make the one who drinks it human again. She died a vampire, so technically it could work. But she doubted that it would also bring her back to life. What good was it to be human again, but still remain dead and invisible to the world around her? That is if it would even have any effect on her at all. In the end, Jenna had decided that it wasn't worth finding out, not when she could still use it on someone who deserved it, like Elena or even Silas.

Up until last week, Jenna hadn't really grasped the severity of the situation. She had been told about Silas and the cure, but not about his motivation behind becoming human again. Shouldn't he rather try to remain immortal and fend off his enemies who try to end his life? Jenna thought that made much more sense, but Silas actually seemed to have a death wish of sorts.

**xxxxxx**

_Coming back to a house filled with mostly silence felt great. Jenna had no intention of staying with Elena and Rebekah any longer. After the Salvatores had interfered with their plan it was unbearable to be around Elena. At least Rebekah had herself under better control._

"_Everyone is trying to find this stupid cure. Did you know that in their desperation Elena and Rebekah have formed some sorts of alliance and plan to go after Katherine to get the cure? First attempt didn't work out, but I think they won't give up just yet." _

_Jenna sat down on the couch and watched Klaus searching for something in one of the boxes that were scattered around the room. He didn't reply or even spare her a look. He'd been behaving like this for a couple of days now. Only answering when it was absolutely necessary, never giving her one of his usual dirty looks when she made one of her sarcastic remarks. Jenna knew that he was worried about Silas, but she thought there was more to it than that. "There is something you're not telling me. What is it?"_

"_This is not the time to talk about this." Also a sentence Jenna had heard too many time over the last couple of days. She had no patience for this anymore, certainly not after days of listening to Elena and Rebekah bicker. She wanted answers and she wanted to have them now. _

_Determined Jenna got up off the couch and marched over to Klaus. She grabbed his arm and pulled, so he would be forced to look at her._

"_Tell me!" Jenna demanded in a voice that left no room for argument. At first he didn't say anything, only studied the woman in front of him closely. He seemed to have some internal debate with himself, but Jenna patiently waited. _

"_He's in love, stupidly in love!" Klaus burst out. That shut her up. Jenna wanted to say something to that and opened her mouth, but then stopped, because this was just not what she had expected. Her confusion must've been visible on her face, because Klaus continued in a calmer voice than before, "He was separated from the woman he loved when she died. She has moved on and he wants nothing more than to join her, but he can't because he's immortal and when he dies he will get stuck on the other side."_

_It took Jenna a moment to realize that 'he' was Silas. After a moment of silence between the two, Jenna finally found her voice again, "Why is it so horrible to let him have that?" _

_Call her a hopeless romantic, but that didn't sound so bad._

"_In order to not get stuck on the other side, he must make sure that there is no other side to hold him back." Klaus explained further._

_Jenna wished he would just stop talking in riddles and finally give it to her straight, "What exactly does that mean?"_

"_It means he needs a witch, in this case Bonnie, to drop the veil." It sounded like this was supposed to be some big revelation, but Jenna wasn't getting it. Klaus on the other hand just kept on looking at her, waiting for the words to finally sink in and turn the light on in her darkness._

"_Let me get this straight. Silas wants to drop the veil between the living and the dead. This means…" Jenna didn't dare finish the sentence. She couldn't let this false hope rise up inside of her again. If it didn't work out, then she would only be crushed once again. _

_Klaus stepped closer to Jenna and put his hand on her shoulders, "It means that you could come back, yes."_

_Jenna shook her head and tried to figure out where the problem was, "I don't see how this is a bad thing. This is all I want. I want to come back again. I want to live again. You said you would help me with that."_

"_I did." Jenna really didn't like this sudden gentleness Klaus displayed. No way was anything good following it. "But the problem is not you, Jenna. It's the other supernatural beings that would come back along with you, the ones who got stuck on the other side to pay for their sins. This is what they meant when they said Silas would bring hell to earth."_

_Suddenly the small vial in her jacket pocket felt a hundred times heavier. Jenna tried her best to ignore that for now and kept up the conversation instead, "I take it a lot of them would want to get revenge on you."_

"_I could think of twelve pissed off hybrids that would love…" Klaus's words faded into the background then. Jenna nodded now and again, but wasn't really paying attention anymore. All she could think about now was the possibility of living again._

**xxxxxx**

_Bring hell to earth_. Now that sounded a little dramatic, Jenna thought, but she could see what Klaus had meant to explain to her. Later he had also explained that he hadn't meant to keep this from her, but was unsure of her reaction. She thought he just didn't want to see her cry again since it made him uncomfortable.

Not that she had cried, she had been too busy thinking about this new information. This was her way back. The problem was that it would only be permanent if the veil stayed down. The moment it went up again she would be gone.

Then again, if she could only hold on to the cure long enough for Bonnie to succeed in dropping the veil, she could come back and take it herself. Bonnie had this crazy idea that if she could drop the veil she could ask her ancestor how to kill Silas for good. She was willing to take immeasurable risks for it and no one was sure what the consequences would be, other than a bunch of dead supernatural beings lusting for revenge and blood returning to the land of the living.

If there was no veil Jenna would be able to come back. She would be a vampire, but could take the cure. If the veil then went up again Jenna would be human and she hoped that would let her remain on the side of the living.

So here Jenna was, stuck in her current dilemma. She had the cure and soon maybe even a way to come back. But at what price?

Jenna was pulled from her thoughts when a hand grabbed the cell phone in front of her. Elena was all ready to go and a quick glance at the clock told Jenna that it was time to leave. She sighed and put the vial back into her jacket pocket and zipped it shut.

It was time to graduate.


	14. Unveil Me

**14 **

Right in the middle of the football field stood a big stage decorated with balloons, flowers and a huge banner congratulating this year's graduates. In the middle of the stage stood Mystic Fall's current Mayor, Bonnie's Dad, speaking to the young people in front of him. He was wishing them a happy and successful future while Jenna noticed all the proud parents and families smiling at their offspring from the stands.

This day was supposed to be completely different. For one, Jenna should've still been alive and sit there with the rest of them and smile and clap and generally be proud of Elena and her friends. It's not that she wasn't proud of them now. If anything she was even prouder of them then the rest, because they managed to graduate even with their lives completely changing. Two died and became vampires, one turned into a capable, if slightly unpredictable, witch and poor Matt had had to endure more than others his age.

Jenna had positioned herself a little off to the side between the stands and the area with all the students. From this position she had a perfect view of the row of students standing and waiting to for their turn to walk up to the stage and receive their diploma.

They all looked so happy, even Stefan who had probably graduated dozens of times by now. The only one having trouble was Elena. There was a smile on her face, but it wasn't as natural and happy as it should've been and that made Jenna sad. Another graduate who seemed a little off was Bonnie. Jenna had noticed her fidgeting with her robe more than once. She smiled and laughed with her friends, but once in a while she would nervously look over her shoulder or keep her eyes trained on her hands, appearing to think about something that was bothering her.

The row of students moved consistently closer to the stage. One by one they walked up as soon as their name had been called out. Jenna cheered for every one she knew. She was happy to be able to be here to watch this, even if it wasn't the way she had originally wished it to be.

**xxxxxx**

After the ceremony Jenna stood in the shadows of a tree besides the field. Not far from her Caroline, Bonnie, Stefan and Matt stood in a circle, smiling and hugging each other. A little ways off to the side stood Elena focused on her cell phone. She was probably waiting for Rebekah to pick her up, but couldn't stop herself from glancing over to her friends from time to time. Jenna thought that there was a longing in her eyes somewhere, but her pride and basic unemotional state wouldn't let her go over and share this special day with her friends. All she cared about these days was killing Katherine Pierce.

"Looks like little Elena's resolve is starting to crumple." Jenna jumped and turned around to find Klaus standing close behind her. A quick glance revealed Klaus had dressed up for the occasion.

"You're wearing a suit." Jenna knew she stated the obvious, but she didn't care. The last time she saw Klaus wearing a suit was at the decade dance. They had danced that night until her recently turned vampire ex-boyfriend had tried to stake and kill her dance partner. This was different, though. Instead of his white 1920's suit Klaus was dressed in a very nice dark suit this time. It fit him rather well, Jenna had to admit.

Klaus smiled at her, "You're still wearing the same."

Jenna looked down on herself. What she saw were washed out jeans, her favorite pair of black boots, her navy top and matching jacket. She guessed she should've maybe dressed better, but she had enough on her mind as it was, she had no time to worry about her wardrobe. No one but him would see her anyway.

"Why are you here?" Jenna asked and turned back to the group not far away.

Klaus shrugged, "It's graduation day. I thought I'd stop by and congratulate the class of 2013."

"You mean congratulate Caroline." Jenna teased him and laughed.

"Yes, maybe." Klaus shook his head and smiled, "I admit I also came to see if you would be here."

The only reaction Jenna had to that admission was a raised eyebrow.

"It's just…you haven't been back after we had our talk about the meaning of the veil dropping. With your previous reactions and ways to handle emotional revelations I wasn't sure if you might…"

"What? Completely lose it and start breaking your stuff again?" He was right, of course. Jenna had avoided Klaus after that particular conversation. She wasn't angry with him, but she hadn't told him about the cure and she was worried she might unintentionally give something away. The whole deal with the cure and the veil had been on her mind ever since, weighing the pros and cons of the veil dropping. You'd think she wouldn't want anything happening that could hurt her family, but she was no saint. Sometimes she was selfish, too.

"You're alright then?" He didn't look at her, just stared straight ahead.

Jenna couldn't hold the bubble of laughter back any longer, "You're totally worried about me."

"_Totally_ is a bit much." Klaus immediately protested to the allegation.

Jenna smiled at him before she turned thoughtful again and watched Elena still standing apart from the others, "Do you really think her resolve is getting weaker?"

"I don't really know, but I can assure you she won't be able to keep it up forever. Eventually humanity will come back creeping in, whether she wants it to or not." She couldn't say why, but Jenna felt better after hearing Klaus' words. It was the way he had said it. She was sure there was a story behind his words, but she let it go.

Jenna didn't look at Klaus to see if his face betrayed his words. It happened sometimes, especially when he was being mean. She found out that he had very expressive features and she had become better at interpreting them. Right this moment, however, she simply took comfort in his words alone and kept on watching the small group in front of her. From what Jenna could make out they were talking about the big party at the Grill later tonight. Well, Caroline did most of the talking, but everyone else agreed with her. The only one reluctant to start partying hard was Bonnie. She said she wanted to speak to her Dad first and that she would meet up with the rest of them afterwards, but Jenna watched her as she walked away. The witch was still nervous and walking a little too fast away from her friends. No one was really watching her leave and instead of walking over to the other people still standing around and looking for her father, Bonnie headed straight for her car. She was up to something and Jenna wanted to know what that was.

Unconsciously Jenna touched a hand to her jacket pocket feeling the presents of the vial inside of it and turned her head a little to the side.

"You should go and congratulate them now." Without further explanation Jenna vanished, leaving a puzzled Klaus behind.

**xxxxxx**

Being able to get around as easily as Jenna could turned out to be handy when she had lost sight of Bonnie more than once after she drove away. Jenna wasn't sure how much time had passed since Bonnie had left her friends, but it had probably been close to an hour and a half now. In this time Bonnie had been to three different places.

The Lockwood Cellar was her first stop. Jenna knew about this place, because she had been here once as a teenager with Mason who had shown her some of the creepier things around their land. If anything, Jenna thought it appeared even creepier now, especially seeing the dried blood that could be seen in some places. Jenna was pretty sure that it hadn't been there before. Bonnie didn't stay down in the cellar for long. All she did was stand in the middle of the cellar and mutter some words Jenna couldn't make out. It had to be some kind of spell. What it did other than sent a chill up her spine and created wind in a sealed room, Jenna had no idea.

Bonnie did the very same thing at two other places. The Young Farm where this tragic accident had happened. Twelve people had died in an explosion and Jenna remembered feeling a little sick after finding out about it. Who would want to die like this? Not that being staked to death was any better. The point was that, thinking about it now, Jenna began to realize that it might not have been an accident after all.

The third and last place had been in the middle of the woods, as far as Jenna could tell. She hadn't been here before and she wasn't sure what was so important about this very spot, but Bonnie once again did a little spell and right after she was finished took off again.

On their way back to Bonnie's car Jenna did realize one thing. Whatever Bonnie did never took very long. It was the drive that took up most of the time. Trying to think about where they have been and bringing that into context with a mental map of Mystic Falls, Jenna realized that they had been always just outside of town. They didn't exactly go in a circle, but the points created a triangle and the town was right in the middle of it. For some reason that unsettled Jenna more than just a little.

On the entire drive to wherever Bonnie was about to go next Jenna tried to figure out what Bonnie was up to. The obvious answer was Bonnie would finally go through with her plan and attempt to drop the veil and whatever she did so far was part of it. But why now and without anyone's help? Was Bonnie worried the others would try to stop her? It would explain her nervous behavior from earlier. Wouldn't the witch need a full moon for this kind of spell? Jenna thought she had heard something like that. And there were other things that have been mentioned. A stone, but not the like the moonstone that was used in the ritual she had died in. No, this was supposed to be a tombstone with some dead witch's blood in it. Wasn't that why they had been on that island?

There were so many questions going through Jenna's mind that she barely paid attention to where she was going. All she did was follow behind Bonnie. Looking up again, Jenna found herself in the woods once again. They were somewhere where they hadn't been before, but Jenna would bet it was inside this mental triangle she had come up with in her head.

Bonnie started to descend on some stairs that were very well hidden. Unless you knew where to look it was hard to see the entrance that led to some kind of underground lair. After following a short tunnel, both entered a bigger underground cave. Candles were set up all through it and Jenna realized that Bonnie must have planned this for some time now. This was certainly no spur of the moment thing.

At that realization Jenna hung back a bit and leaned against the wall opposite from Bonnie, who positioned herself in the middle of all the candles. Bonnie wasn't losing any time and with one simple hand gesture all the candles lit up. Jenna jumped a little to the side when the candle beside her lit up. Could she catch fire? Better not find out.

Bonnie had a very concentrated look on her face and the words leaving her mouth made absolutely no sense to Jenna. It wasn't a language she could understand and probably never would. At first the words were spoken quietly and kind of drawn out, but as Bonnie picked up speed her eyes closed and the candles started to burn a little brighter. Maybe it was the fact that Jenna was a ghost and maybe susceptible to these kinds of things, but she didn't have a good feeling about this. She still wasn't sure what exactly Bonnie was trying to accomplish here and she thought she heard strange noises coming from outside.

Abruptly the chanting stopped and Bonnie's eyes flew open. She took a few quick breaths and moved over to the side to retrieve something from behind a rock. She returned to her previous position with a big rock in her hands and knelt down on the ground.

"Please Quetsia, help me." Bonnie whispered and closed her eyes again. This time Bonnie remained silent, but it seemed the chanting was taking place inside her mind this time. Her fingers pressed harder into the stone.

Jenna couldn't do much besides staring. Is this supposed to be the tombstone needed for the ritual? A moment ago Jenna wouldn't have thought so, because when she thought of a tombstone she pictured something entirely different, but if the blood dripping from the stone was any indication, it was the right stone.

Now there was no doubt left in Jenna's mind, Bonnie was attempting to drop the veil. Remembering Klaus' words about what would happen if the witch succeeded, Jenna felt even more uneasy. She needed to see this for herself. There was still a chance he had been lying to her, but somehow Jenna knew that it was only wishful thinking.

**xxxxxx**

A little disoriented Jenna took a look at her surroundings. It was later in the day, but it might as well have been night. Street lamps were the only source of light out here on the streets. The flood lights on the football field had been turned on as well. A storm was brewing overhead, trees were swinging dangerously one side to the other and people were trying to find shelter wherever they could. Up until this moment Jenna hadn't realized that what Bonnie was doing had such an effect on the entire town.

"I'm guessing since you decided to come back, you know what's happening here." It was not phrased as a question. It sounded more like an accusation. Jenna turned and saw Klaus standing a few feet behind her.

Before she could even open her mouth to respond Klaus continued, "Bonnie's dropping the veil, isn't she?"

It wasn't really that hard to figure out. When a perfectly sunny day suddenly turns into this mess, Klaus was sure it could only have to do with witchcraft. And after Caroline killed basically all other witches in Mystic Falls, there was only one left who could be responsible for this. One who would risk everything to find a way to kill Silas.

Klaus checked his surroundings. No evil creatures trying to kill him so far, the veil must still be in place. "Did you know about this?"

"We all knew that this was Bonnie's plan all along. But no, I didn't know that Bonnie was planning to go through with dropping the veil today. I noticed her acting nervous earlier, so I followed her. That's it."

"You know where she is. Tell me." Klaus demanded. Sure he wanted Silas dead, too, but he wasn't so thrilled about the prospect of dead supernatural beings coming after him. Jenna's thoughts weren't exactly the same. Any moment now, if Bonnie really manages to do it, she would be back. Of course she didn't want people to get hurt for it, but she also suspected that if she told Klaus about Bonnie's whereabouts he probably wouldn't waste time with talking to her. He'd simply kill her.

"You know what will happen soon. They'll come back and it won't just be me they'll be after. I'm sure there are a lot of dead people out there who would love to get revenge on Bonnie, Caroline and with the way Elena had been behaving lately, I'm sure some might want to see her suffer, too. My brother Kol, for example, wasn't too fond of her." He was only trying to get to her, Jenna knew that, but she couldn't tell him where Bonnie was, it wouldn't be right.

"I know that this must seem like the opportunity you've been waiting for ever since…" He wanted to say _since I killed you_, but he caught himself, "Well, for a long time. Let's say Bonnie succeeds, she finds the answers she's looking for and then what? She will put the veil back up again sooner or later. The only question is how much damage will be done in the meantime."

"But…"

"It won't be permanent." Klaus' voice was insistent. Jenna knew he was right, but he also didn't know about the vial in her jacket pocket.

"You don't understand…why would I have to give everything up? If you were me you would do anything to not be stuck on the other side forever."

"True, but I'm the selfish one. You're better than me, ok. I need you to be better than me, Jenna. It's not like really anything would change. I'll still be here and I'll still be seeing you. None of that will change. We will find a way, a less dangerous way." Oh, how she hated herself for letting his words get to her.

Jenna sighed, "Since when have you become the voice of reason around here?"

"I know, it's just wrong, isn't it." Klaus agreed with Jenna on that. He found himself being the reasonable one, still with questionable motivation, but reasonable enough and he didn't like it. He was used to others giving him speeches and not having to make them himself.

_It's also your fault_, Klaus thought and pulled a face. He was about to try a different tactic when all of a sudden all the remaining lights around them went out. Whatever Bonnie was doing, it had caused a blackout in all of Mystic Falls.

Plunged into complete darkness Jenna had expected to be blind, but she could see just fine. She saw everything clear as day and noticed a young, blonde woman walking up to them behind Klaus. There was something familiar about her, but it wasn't until she was almost right beside them that Jenna remembered where she had seen her before.

"Remember me?" Jenna did remember her. It was the woman Jenna had watched getting her heart ripped out.

Klaus had turned at the sound of her voice and took an involuntary step back. He was afraid this would happen. He had expected twelve angry hybrids to show up first, but he knew there were more of them out there who wanted to see him suffer. So much for stopping Bonnie before she dropped the veil, Klaus thought. He couldn't believe that this little annoying witch actually succeeded.

"Ah, my werewolf sacrifice, how you've been?" Klaus laughed a little, "You realize you won't have much chance against me. I might have had a witch with me the last time, but I can easily take you on my own."

"My name is Jules." If looks could kill, Jenna thought and noticed Jules' attention had shifted over to her.

"I remember you. You were there in the other circle. Did you come for him, too?" Jules laughed and turned back to Klaus, "You know…I won't have to take you on my own. I was merely first in line to come back through. The rest of them will be here shortly. The witch was clever in only dropping the veil around Mystic Falls, but it won't…"

Whatever else Jules was about to say, it was lost when Jenna's hands came out of nowhere and snapped her neck. Jules never saw it coming and neither did Klaus.

His eyes widened slightly, "You killed her."

"Forget about her. I'm back!" Jenna couldn't hold back the happiness in her voice. She felt great knowing she was real again and alive. So great, in fact, she flung herself at Klaus and hugged him. He was so surprised by it that he hugged her back. They stayed like that for a moment when Klaus remembered why she was hugging him.

He pushed her away from him gently, "You have to go now. You're back and still a vampire. You can make it to Bonnie in no time. Convince her to fix this as fast as she can. Come on, don't make me beg." Jenna almost smiled at that. It would be funny to see him do that. Jenna was about to picture it when something at the edge of the field caught Jenna's eye.

"What is Elena still doing here?" Klaus followed Jenna's line of vision and noticed the young vampire talking on the phone. She seemed to be angry about Rebekah not showing up from what he could hear. Klaus wasn't sure what that was about, but he noticed Jenna looking from Jules' body beside her back to Elena. Klaus figured that the seriousness of the situation was finally sinking in. He grabbed Jenna by the shoulders and made her look at him again, "Don't worry about her. I'll get Elena out of here and you go to Bonnie. I'll promise Elena will be fine and Bonnie will more likely listen to you than me."

Jenna rolled her eyes, "You would promise me anything right now."

"I would." Klaus admitted, "I know that I haven't got the best track record when it comes to keeping promises or doing the right thing, but I'll promise I'll keep her alive." It seemed like a safe enough promise.

Jenna looked back at Elena and took a deep breath. "I will hold you to your promise and if you fail I'll haunt you for the rest of your life. We both know how annoying I can be and so far I haven't even been trying."

Klaus smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek. He sidestepped Jenna quickly and jogged over to Elena. Klaus grabbed Elena's elbow and positioned her so her back was turned to Jenna. He was saying something and Elena began to protest loudly, but Klaus started to drag her away with him. That was enough for Jenna and she started to concentrate on Bonnie. Nothing was happening. Then she remembered, "Right, no more disappearing at will." Jenna only hoped she would remember the way.

**xxxxxx**

It looked all the same to Jenna. She had taken a few wrong turns in the woods, but eventually Jenna had found the well concealed entrance. It had felt great to be able to move this fast and to feel, hear, smell everything around her. She had thought she had felt alive once she allowed herself to feel again, but this was ten times better. Jenna couldn't believe she was on her way to give all that up again. Maybe she wouldn't have to.

"I can't believe I'm seriously doing this. Just when things go my way for once, I decide to do 'the right thing'." Jenna muttered while walking down the steps slowly. She made her way back down to where she saw the witch last. A voice reached her ears, but it wasn't Bonnie's. Jenna stopped and listened.

"_Did you think it would be this easy?"_

"_How are you not looking like before? I thought that…"_

"_That you knew my true form? I just wanted you to think that. Once you thought that I couldn't get into your head anymore it became much easier to read your every move."_

Jenna figured the voice could only belong to one person. The one person she didn't actually want to meet -_ Silas_.

"_I dropped the veil."_

"_But you won't live long enough to put it back up."_

Then there was silence. Jenna got a bad feeling and inched further to the edge. She peeked around the corner and had to keep herself from making any noise. Someone was pressing Bonnie against the wall and wrapping his fingers around her throat. Jenna couldn't see his face, only the black cloak he was wearing.

He's choking her, Jenna realized and looked around the room for a way to help Bonnie. Jenna spotted the tombstone not far away from her. Without really thinking this through, because she figured Bonnie didn't have much time, Jenna grabbed the stone, brought it all the way up above her head and smashed it over Silas' head with her vampire strength. All this happened so fast even Silas hadn't seen it coming. He also was very focused on the witch before him. Jenna lost her own balance for a moment, but caught herself before she fell over while Silas went down and hit the floor with a thud. It would take some time to get used to this kind of strength.

_Two in one day._ Jenna mentally congratulated herself and smoothed her jacket back down. Bonnie's eyes had followed Silas down to the floor. When she raised them back up to thank her savior, she was more than a little surprised.

"Jenna?" Bonnie's face was priceless and disbelieve colored her voice. Jenna lifted her right hand and waved a little at the witch.

"Is it really you?" Bonnie's voice cracked a little. Jenna smiled and was close to tears herself. She had waited for so long for someone other than Klaus to notice her, she was so overwhelmed that she couldn't even think of anything to say. Bonnie stumbled a few steps forward over Silas' body and fell into Jenna's arms. "You're real and you're here. That means it worked."

For a moment Jenna allowed herself to hold on to Bonnie and just forget about everything else. For that one moment there was nothing wrong in the world. Unfortunately that moment couldn't last forever. It wasn't without regret that Jenna untangled herself from Bonnie again and addressed the witch in a sad voice, "Bonnie, you have to put the veil back up again, right now."

Bonnie shook her head, "I can't. I still need to speak to Quetsia. I need to know how to undo the immortality spell that prevents Silas from dying."

"There is no time. You don't know what's been going on out there. They're already coming back and attacking people. Bonnie, you have to do it." Jenna hoped she could make the witch see reason once she told her about the cure. Watching Bonnie getting choked and earlier with Elena, Jenna had decided to not use it on herself. Maybe she never really would have in the first place. She didn't want others having to suffer just so she could live again and she still didn't know if it would even work on her. Silas was the bigger threat. Should she get stuck on the other side again, she still had Klaus to annoy. Not much of a comfort, but Jenna would make it work.

She was just about to reach into her pocket when she felt something pierce through her. Stunned Jenna looked down on herself.

_Prevents Silas from dying._ Thinking back at this later, Jenna would realize she might have avoided what happened next had she listened closer to the Bonnie's words. Just as fast as Jenna had knocked Silas over the head with the tombstone, he was now repaying her by staking her through her stomach with a small tree branch that had been lying around here somewhere.

Jenna let out a painful cry and sank down to her knees. This was worse than the last time she got staked. The last time the pain faded as she was dying, but this wouldn't stop until the wood left her body. On the upside she was still alive.

**xxxxxx**

Back on the field, Klaus and Elena had only made it about halfway across the field when they noticed the hybrids. They stopped abruptly and Klaus took a look around. Twelve hybrids formed a wide circle and were slowly closing in on them. At least they didn't seem to be in any kind of a rush. They probably liked to play with their food first.

"Well, this is unfortunate." Klaus muttered and readjusted his grip on Elena. He hadn't planned on a confrontation here, especially not on an open field with nowhere to go. Klaus was sure that fighting them wouldn't be too hard. He'd done it before, killed all twelve of them. Elena was the problem. He had promised Jenna to keep her alive and he found himself not wanting to break that promise. The moment he'd let go of Elena, though, she would run and with his luck right into two or three of them who wouldn't hesitate to kill her. Something told him they were here to kill and they didn't particularly care who as long as it included him. He needed to think of something and fast.

"There are very angry hybrids coming our way, so if you could just let me go so I can get the hell out of here." She tried to pry his hands off her, but he was stronger and she couldn't get away. This was not the way she wanted to die. She still had things to do, like killing Katherine.

"You know, my sister talks an awful Iot and I heard about the Salvatore's latest attempt to get through to you. They locked you up and starved you, correct?" Elena had no idea where he was going with this, but to be honest he was desperate and he didn't see any other way out of this. He just hoped it would work.

"What's your point?" They were about to be attacked by twelve hybrids and he wanted to small talk, Elena thought angrily. She spared a look at him and noticed that he seemed to be deep in thought.

"That drained all the vervain out of your system and I'll bet you've been so focused on killing Katherine that you haven't even thought about that."

That got Elena's attention and she stopped struggling. The last thing she needed now was to be compelled by an Original. Her obsession with killing Katherine and the anger towards everyone who tried to stop her had completely consumed her and she really had forgotten about it. How could she have been so stupid? Would he compel her to let them rip her apart so he could get away? At that thought, Elena trashed even harder against Klaus, not that it was helping.

"See that's what happens when you get lost inside your head. You start to forget about the little things." Klaus sighed, "We're not getting out of here without a fight and I need you to be able to survive this."

"Why do you even care?" Elena asked exasperated, but instead of answering her Klaus explained to her what he was getting at. "I want you to turn your emotions back on."

Elena immediately stopped struggling again and went perfectly still. This was a possibility she hadn't thought about. She assumed he would kill her, not want her to feel again. Suddenly she wished he would want to kill her. It seemed like the less painful option.

"Please, no. You don't understand. I don't want to feel again. I need to kill Katherine and I can't do that if I have to stop and care about the people around me. I need to be like her."

Klaus ignored her pleading. There was more he wanted to say to her. He wanted to explain to her that Katherine wasn't as unfeeling as Elena thought. Katherine Pierce knew better than to let her emotions get the better of her or to turn them off completely. Hell, he knew better than to let emotions get the better of him. Even though being completely honest he had to admit that often he couldn't help but let them.

The truth was you couldn't turn it off forever. When you're new to being a vampire the prospect of going through life taking whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it without ever having to feel bad about it was exhilarating. But humanity would always come back creeping in sooner or later and after a few centuries it was more or less impossible to shut it out completely. Eventually all you could do was pretend. Pretend not to feel, not to care, not to love. You had to find a way to deal with emotions, especially since in most cases they were extremely heightened.

But there was simply no time to make her understand that. So instead Klaus grabbed Elena's face and held her still while he looked in her slightly frightened eyes and ordered, "Turn. It. Back. On."

Elena didn't react instantly, but Klaus saw many different emotions displayed across her face. When this happened to Jenna, she had shut down and retreated into herself for a while. He needed Elena to stay with him and not get lost in her feelings now. She was still so new to this and he hoped she would be able to take it.

All the people's faces she had killed flashed through Elena's mind. All the terrible things she had said and done came rushing back to her. The worst of all was remembering what she had done to her family and friends. She had hurt Jeremy, had used Matt as a human blood bag and had almost succeeded in killing Bonnie and Caroline, her best friends. She's done so many horrible things, she was a horrible person.

Elena felt like she was choking until she realized she was trying to hold back the sobs that threatened to spill from her throat. Silent tears slid over her cheeks and just like that she finally let out a scream that held so much pain it made Klaus hold on to Elena a little tighter. To his surprise he noticed that the hybrids stopped and looked unsure. By now he and Elena were completely surrounded by them. The only way out now was to fight.

"Now, listen to me. You think you're stronger when there are no feelings to hold you back, but that's not true. Caring can give you even more strength than you think. I want you to focus on all the hurt you feel right now and channel it into one single thing."

Elena's voice was barely audible when she asked Klaus what exactly that would be.

"Destruction, Elena." Klaus turned Elena around in his arms so her back was pressed to him, "I want you to let it all out on them. This may be not the most elegant or healthy way to deal with what you're feeling right now, but it will have to do." Klaus dared to loosen his grip on the young vampire in front of him and waited for her reaction.

It took Elena three long, deep breaths before she felt she had enough control over herself, but once she did she didn't lose any time and went straight for the closest hybrid to her left. She didn't want to feel this hurt, but due to Klaus' compulsion she couldn't help it. He told her to focus it on destruction and so she tore her nails through the throat of a very surprised hybrid and he was not the only one. The others hadn't expected the young vampire's sudden assault and stared perplexed at Elena slashing away at their friend. Klaus couldn't help but let a small smile break out over his face. If Jenna would see this she would most definitely not approve. Oh well, he had promised to make sure Elena would live, but it wasn't specifically mentioned that she had to be mentally intact as well.

Not wanting to leave all the fun to Elena, Klaus first threw the hybrid who charged at him into another one, before he ripped the heart out of the hybrid who was coming at him from the right.

**xxxxxx**

Still on her knees Jenna noticed Bonnie running over to her. However, she never made it because Silas threw her against the cave wall so hard Bonnie fell unconscious to the floor. With one more deep breath Jenna pulled at the tree branch stuck in her stomach and pulled as much as the pain would allow her to. It was painfully slow, but eventually the branch was out and Jenna could instantly feel the healing process begin.

"I remember you from Klaus' thoughts. I had tricked him once making him think I was you." Silas was slowly advancing on her and for the first time Jenna took a good look at him. The cloak covered most of his body, but his face was visible and scarred. Jenna tried not to look directly at him, but then Silas morphed into Logan Fell, her ex-boyfriend from High School. The man who had made her run away from Mystic Falls. "You haven't changed one bit. You're still so trusting and easy to manipulate. You'd let anyone use you as a pawn in their game."

Jenna couldn't believe what she was seeing and hearing. She slowly walked backwards. She wanted nothing more than to get out of here. "How is this even possible? You're dead, you're not really here. You can't be."

Suddenly Logan was gone and another voice came from behind her. Jenna, who was still walking backwards, bummed right into Alaric. "You were never cut out to be a parent. Even drunk out of my mind I did a better job than you. Who knows what I had ever seen in you."

"You left when I needed you the most." It was Jeremy's voice from the right, followed by Elena's accusing voice from the left, "It's your fault I'm dead."

Jenna wasn't sure anymore where to look. Voices seemed to be coming from every direction. In a desperate attempt to block it all out Jenna covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear any more of it.

"Jenna, look at me." Now that's a voice Jenna hadn't heard in long time and she couldn't help but obey. She gasped when she saw her sister standing before her. Miranda looked just like the last time Jenna had seen her before she and Grayson had left to pick up Elena. Only one of the three returned home after that night and Jenna missed her sister more than anyone else in this world.

On the other side of the cave Bonnie slowly started to regain consciousness and propped herself up on her elbows. Jenna hit the wall behind her and with every sentence Miranda spoke to her she slid down a little further until she was cowering on the ground, "You were supposed to take care of my children. Instead you let them be put into one dangerous situation after the next. I trusted you and you failed me, Jenna. I'm so disappointed in you."

"Don't listen to him. He's only trying to torture you, it's not real." Bonnie's voice came somewhere from behind Miranda and Jenna finally tore her eyes away and looked over to the witch. That was easier said than done. Jenna tried to tell herself that it's not real and that Miranda wasn't really there, that what she said is not what she really thought.

"Just back from the dead and already you will die again. It's what you deserve for being a failure." Miranda picked up the tree branch from the floor and stepped closer to Jenna. Bonnie yelled something from across the room, but Jenna couldn't make it out. She was so panicked, because she was about to die again. She had just come back from the dead, Jenna didn't want to rejoin them again. Luckily this kind of thinking finally cleared some of the fog in her mind and let her remember the one thing Silas wanted more than her death.

"I…have it…the cure. I have the cure." Jenna stammered out and sat up straighter. She reached into her pocket and pulled the small vial out. Her hands held tight to it and she raised her hand a little higher so Silas could see that she wasn't lying. Miranda stopped and suddenly it was Silas' face again or whoever he wanted the two of them to him as. He looked from Jenna to Bonnie and back again, "This is a trick."

Jenna also took a look over to Bonnie. She was clearly surprised to see the one thing everyone had been looking for, but she remained silent.

"You're the one who reads people's minds, you tell me. Am I lying?" Jenna had found new courage in the fact that she had something Silas wanted. He seemed to pierce Jenna with his look. She wondered if he could really read her thoughts and if she should maybe filter what she was thinking. Not that it would make much difference. If he could read her mind he would know everything anyway. "And you would just give it to me?"

"That depends. Will you take it and go away?"

"Sure, I'll do that. Just give it to me." Silas smiled. It was supposed to be reassuring, Jenna was sure, but all it did was contort his scarred face even more.

Jenna's eyes narrowed. His words sounded positive, but Jenna didn't believe him for a second. Maybe she had been around Klaus for too long and maybe that had made her more suspicious of people, but she just knew not to trust him. "I don't believe you. Is it even true that your wife's waiting somewhere for you. How would you even know that? Do you have other plans for the cure?"

Silas sighed and was clearly out of patience, "That's something you will never find out, because you'll be long gone by then."

Silas smirked at Jenna and was getting ready to attack her, when he realized he couldn't move and it made him even angrier. "What is this? You won't be able to keep that up. I'm stronger than you'll ever be, little witch."

Jenna quickly looked over to Bonnie whose eyes were trained on Silas. Her hands were slightly raised and Jenna figured Bonnie was doing something to hold Silas in place.

"I can't hold him for much longer." Bonnie spoke through clenched teeth and raised her hands higher and her whole body tensed up. Jenna lifted her hand and opened it. She studied the vial in front of her and for the first time asked herself how this was even supposed to work. The liquid was clearly visible, but the vial itself had no opening on either side.

Bonnie started to shake, so Jenna did the only thing she could think of. She got right in front of Silas and forced his mouth to open enough for the vial to enter his mouth. Then she forced his mouth to open a little more and while one of her hand push his jaw up, the other pushed his head down. Thanks to her vampire strength it was no problem to make Silas break the vial with his teeth. A crunch told her that the vial had broken and Jenna retreated back to Bonnie's side who as soon as Jenna was close enough let go of all the tension in her body and slumped against her. Jenna caught her easily and lowered her gently to the ground.

Silas, now free of Bonnie's spell, still didn't move. He just stood there and choked a little. Jenna was about to ask Bonnie if it was working when Silas' eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor.

Besides Jenna, Bonnie was breathing hard, "Where did you get the cure?"

"I…that's…a long story." Jenna didn't feel like explaining it all, "Do you think it worked. Is he human now?"

Bonnie shrugged, "I don't know. If it really was the cure, I guess."

"Should…should we kill him now?" Bonnie's eyes went wide at Jenna's suggestion. If the cure worked and Silas was human now then this was the perfect change to get rid of him once and for all. He had lived for two thousand years. It was time for him to go. But would it be morally incorrect to kill him now that he was assumed to be human? Or was this just another part of the original plan. A part no one had really thought about before. According to Silas' story he wanted nothing more than to join his wife. Who were they to keep him from her?

"If it didn't work then he will keep on terrorizing us, but if it worked we would be safe from him."

Jenna got up off the ground and offered her hand to Bonnie. "If it didn't work it wouldn't matter, right? He wouldn't be able to be killed."

Bonnie nodded, "You do it."

"Me? Why me?" Before this could turn into much of a discussion the girls both let out a little scream when Silas suddenly arched his back and gasped for air. He made horrible noises. If this was part of becoming human again then Jenna was glad she had decided against taking the cure.

By now Silas had turned around and was pushing himself up off the floor. Bonnie clung to Jenna. From fear or weakness, Jenna wasn't sure, but she couldn't watch this any longer. Still groaning, Silas pushed to his knees and was about to get up when Jenna made a decision. To hell with it all. She was going back behind the veil either way; she might as well earn her reason for it.

For the third time today she delivered death. Silas fell back to the ground, face first. He didn't move anymore. His neck had snapped, he must be dead. "Ok, that's done. Now the veil."

Bonnie hesitated, "If I put it up again you'll be gone."

"I know." Jenna sighed. It made her sad, but it had to be done. "Just tell Elena and Jeremy that I'm still here, that I love them and that I'll be looking after them. I'll be keeping watch on all of you."

"I will tell them." Both fell into each other's arms again. Jenna's eyes brimmed with tears, but she refused to let them fall and when she let go of Bonnie she saw the witch was close to tears as well. Bonnie nodded and took her place in the middle of the cave again. The candles were still burning. They had almost burned down to the bottom. It was time.

A light breeze blew through the cave and Jenna took that as a sign that Bonnie's chanting was working…for about a five seconds. Bonnie fell to her knees and Jenna rushed over to her. "I'm too weak. I've done too much magic for one day. I'm not strong enough."

"Yes, you are. Come on, Bonnie, you can do it." Jenna knelt down beside Bonnie and took her hands into hers. She gave them a squeeze and gave what she hoped was an encouraging look to Bonnie. "Your friends need you. You're the only one who can fix this."

The witch breathed in deep and closed her eyes while she exhaled again. Just like earlier when she was dropping the veil Bonnie didn't say a word, but Jenna could see her eyelids move from side to side. Bonnie held on tighter to Jenna and Jenna didn't dare let go of Bonnie. Once again the candles in the cave burned a little brighter and blood started to trickle down from Bonnie's nose.

"Bonnie, please hold on." Jenna whispered and squeezed her hands again. A few seconds passed, then Bonnie's hands slipped out of Jenna's. All the candles went out at the same time and Bonnie's back hit the ground again.

**xxxxxx**

Elena was still slashing steadily away at hybrid number three or four. During the fight she had lost count. Her focus was completely trained on letting all the hurt she felt out on the hybrid she was currently sitting on after she had thrown him on the ground. What also meant that Klaus had to make sure another hybrid wasn't taking her head of more than once.

Elena raised her arm and was about to go for the hybrid's heart to finish him off, when her hand suddenly struck the ground. He was gone. Elena looked up and looked over to Klaus who was looked just as surprised. There was no one left but the two of them.

"I guess this means the veil is finally back up again." Klaus dragged his hands down his shirt to get some of the blood off his hands. Sometime during the fight he had taken his jacket off and might have strangled a hybrid with it. He wasn't so sure anymore. There had been so many of them.

Elena was hunched over next to him, still trying to steady her breathing. "Ok, I have to ask. Why did you make me turn my humanity back on? You were the one to encourage my decision to turn it off."

"Only because I found it extremely entertaining to watch you hate Katherine as much as I do." The way he said it made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world and it reminded Elena a little of Damon. "Besides, you would have turned it back on eventually. I just helped speed up the process."

Klaus took the time to look Elena over. She didn't look well at all. Her clothes were covered in blood; her hair stood out to all sides and slashing with her nails had made her break some of them. But it was the look on her face that made Klaus ask, "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not." Elena took a shaky breath and started to walk away, "But I will be."

On the other side of the field Matt and Caroline appeared, shouting Elena's name and waving her over to them. Looks like they had been looking for her and would be in for a surprise once they realized that they had their friend back. Klaus watched Elena walk towards them a little concerned, but didn't say anything else. Elena turned one last time around to Klaus, "I would thank you, but that would be kind of weird."

Elena smiled and Klaus laughed. She would be okay.

**xxxxxx**

Jenna was finally getting out of the woods. She was glad to notice that she had been right. Not far away from her was the Mikaelson's Mansion and from the look of it the electricity was back on again. After she had made sure Bonnie was still breathing she had left the cave and tried to mentally pinpoint her location. It seemed to her that she was closer to the Klaus' house than the town center, so she just started walking. More than just a little depressed she needed that walk to clear her head. The cool night air was helping also. She thought she had heard Jeremy's voice shouting soon after she had walked away. She was sure he would find Bonnie and get her back home. The witch had a lot to explain once she was well enough, but Jenna didn't want to be around for that. Neither did she want to go back to town and find out what the damage was like or if there was any at all.

Out of nowhere Klaus appeared and fell into step with Jenna, "I thought I saw you walking over here."

Jenna, slightly startled, looked over to Klaus. He looked a little worse for wear, but he was smiling. Then Jenna noticed all the blood on his shirt and arms, "Whoa, are you alright?"

"Things got a little messy. It's just hybrid blood, nothing to worry about." Klaus waved her worries away, but Jenna stopped walking and touched his arm.

"Where's Elena? Is she hurt?" At the slightly panicked look in Jenna's eyes Klaus rushed to explain, "I watched her leave with Matt and Caroline. She is…will be alright."

Jenna relaxed visibly and fell silent again. She let her eyes fall back down to the ground and started to walk again.

"You got Bonnie to put the veil back up again. You did it."

Jenna snorted very unladylike, "Oh, you have no idea just how well I did tonight."

"What do you mean?" Klaus smiled at her, but was in no way expecting what she would be telling him next.

"Silas is gone. I don't know if he moved on or if he is stuck on the other side with the rest of us, but he's gone from your side. So I guess that's a good thing."

"What? How?" Was all Klaus could say.

"I might have shoved the cure down his throat and killed him. To be fair he staked me first. Ok, that was after I hit him over the head with his tombstone, but that was only because he was choking Bonnie. Not to mention I had to take some mental abuse from him, too." Jenna stopped walking and motioned at the whole in her jacket, but also held her other hand up to stop Klaus from talking, "I don't want to talk about this now. I'm exhausted and I have a headache. I'll explain everything in the morning."

Klaus nodded, "You don't look too thrilled about it."

"I'm dead to the world again, not much to be thrilled about." Jenna shrugged and kicked the dirt under her feet.

Klaus leaned a little further down to Jenna and tried to catch her eyes, "You're not dead to me."

Despite feeling sad, Jenna felt a smile tuck at her the corners of her mouth, "Shut up and walk with me."

Silence fell between the two again and both walked up the rest of the driveway together.

* * *

><p><strong>Almost done now ;)<strong>


	15. Epilog

**15**

_Something's wrong_. That was Jenna's first thought as she woke up and opened her eyes wide only to shut them again quickly. The light in the room seemed abnormally bright and hurt her eyes. In fact, her entire body felt sore and the room temperature seemed to rise with each passing second.

Thinking hard, Jenna tried to piece the events from last night together. She was at the graduation, she followed Bonnie, she killed Silas and she had been temporarily alive again. It all came back to her now. She had been so exhausted that she barely made it inside the living room before she had passed out on the couch. A quick glance to her right revealed a still sleeping Klaus with his feet on the coffee table and his hands behind his head. Had he stayed here all night with her?

_Why was I even asleep?_ Confused she was about to reach out and wake Klaus when the pain in her body intensified and she felt like she was on fire. Correction, she was on fire. Her right hand had all of a sudden caught on fire and the flames made their way up her arm with an alarming speed.

Jenna screamed and jumped off of the couch, effectively pulling Klaus from his peaceful slumber. With unnatural speed she instinctively sought out the nearest corner the sunlight couldn't reach while Klaus jerked into an upright position, ready to fight, and searched for the culprit who had woken him so rudely. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of Jenna and noticed her current predicament. Without thinking, Klaus sped over to the window and drew the curtains closed before he helped Jenna put out the fire that threatened to consume her. It all happened within a blink of an eye, but to Jenna it might as well have been hours.

"I don't understand." Jenna was panting and her eyes searched helplessly around the room for answers. The brightness of the room still hurt her eyes slightly so she closed them again. That's when she noticed the birds chirping outside the window. The sound was getting louder and louder and Jenna tried to block it out by clutching her hands over her ears.

It wasn't until a new sensation made Jenna shift her focus away from the horrible sound that she dared to slowly open her eyes again. Klaus had put his hands over hers and looked at her with concern. He slowly lowered Jenna's hands and she felt herself calm down again.

"What's happening to me?"

Klaus studied the panicked woman in front of him and wondered the exact same thing, "I think it's time you told me exactly what happened last night."

**xxxxxx**

The living room was now safe for Jenna to stay in. Klaus had drawn the remaining curtains shut and closed the doors. He had left a couple minutes ago and was looking for something while Jenna remained seated on the couch. They both had talked about everything that had happened last night. Neither one of them knew all that much about the delicate workings of witchcraft, but they both had come to the same conclusion. Whatever had happened last night while Jenna was in the cave with Bonnie, it had somehow brought her back. Or more accurately, prevented her from disappearing behind the veil again.

Jenna wasn't sure what was happening to her right now or how to feel about it. She hadn't been a vampire for very long when she was killed for the second time and last night was such a blur that it didn't really count either. Of course she was happy, but also confused and sad and angry and thrilled. Her emotions kept changing from one to the next. She simply didn't know what to feel.

The sound of the door opening pulled her out of her thoughts again and she turned to see Klaus had returned. He smiled and sat down in front of her on the coffee table. His left hand was closed into a fist; in his right hand he held a blood bag.

_Blood_. Jenna's eyes immediately went to the blood bag. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until this moment. Without thinking twice about it, she snatched the bag out of Klaus' hand and ripped it open. The first drop of blood that reached her lips felt like heaven. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she probably shouldn't be so eager to drink the red liquid, that it was wrong, but at the same time it was would keep her alive and well from now on.

"Careful, love, don't drink too much too fast." Klaus chuckled and tried to keep Jenna from making a mess of herself and the furniture. Young vampires, as annoying as some of them can be, sometimes their quite entertaining.

Jenna tried to slow down and drink at a more civilized pace. Tried, being the key word. Within seconds the blood bag was empty and Jenna felt the blood rush through her body, waking her up.

"Feel better now?"

Jenna nodded and sat the bag down on the table besides Klaus, a little embarrassed at her lack of self control. "Now what? Am I supposed to stay in here now for the rest of the day? I feel so energetic and restless. I feel like I need to move and the prospect of being stuck in here isn't very appealing. I think it never occurred to me just how inconvenient this whole sunlight business was."

Klaus smiled a knowing smile, "I'm glad you asked."

He held his still closed hand out to Jenna and opened it. It revealed a ring, a very old looking ring. Jenna wasn't entirely sure what this was supposed to mean.

"This belonged to my brother Kol." Klaus started to explain, "I took it off of his burned body after he was killed. It's his daylight ring. I myself know what it's like to be confined without being able to get out. It sucks, but I think this will do nicely for now."

Klaus took Jenna's hand and put the ring on her right thumb. It was a big ring, but as long as Jenna was careful she wouldn't lose it. She stared at it for a moment, "So this means the next time I step into the sunlight I won't catch fire? Because once was more than enough."

"Why don't you try it out?" Klaus got up off the table and held his hand out to Jenna. She took it and followed him over to the window. Jenna's breath got caught in her throat and she shut her eyes tightly when Klaus pulled the heavy curtains apart. The light of the hot afternoon sun covered her upper body and Jenna half expected to be burned alive any second now. But when after a few more seconds still nothing had happened, Jenna dared to open her eyes again. It still stung a bit to look directly into the light, but other than that she felt fine. The sun actually warmed her skin now, without burning her.

Jenna exhaled slowly, relieved.

**xxxOne Week Laterxxx**

Jenna walked out of the woods near the Salvatore Boardinghouse. It had been a week since she had returned to the world of the living. Technically she wasn't alive, not like humans, but she was back and that's all that mattered.

She had needed that time to really understand the changes her body went through. Everything was more intense now, but she liked to think she was handling it fine. Ok, so there was one incident where she had almost completely sucked the blood out of an innocent man, but Klaus had stopped her in time. It had only been a week and no one could expect her to be perfect at being a vampire right away. Or so Klaus had said anyway.

He had been rather attentive, Jenna thought. He gave her his brother's ring, stopped her from killing people and even answered most of her questions. And she had a lot of them. If only maybe because that was his way of showing that he wasn't completely sadistic after he had tried to get Jenna to feed on one of the young compelled women he kept around the house. He had even wanted her to try and practice compulsion on them. Jenna had been appalled and after she had thrown Klaus a dirty look she compelled them to forget, leave and to never return to this house, which in return earned her a dirty look from Klaus.

Jenna smiled at the memory of it, but tried to focus on the task at hand again. She came here for a reason after all. Today was supposed to be the day. Jenna had decided that she had to let her family know she was back sooner or later and since Klaus would be leaving soon, now that the whole Silas business was taken care of, Jenna figured it was as good a time as any.

Leaning against the side of the house at an angle that still hid her from view, Jenna watched Bonnie and Elena walk out of the house, both carrying suitcases. "I wish I could've been there. It would've been so great to see Jenna again. Not that in my unemotional state I would've ever admitted to that. Good thing that's over."

Bonnie smiled at her friend, "Don't worry, she's still here and who knows maybe we'll see her again someday."

That's it, Jenna thought, this was the perfect moment to just walk up to them and let them know that she was back. Imagine their faces when they realized she was actually here. So why wasn't she moving?

Elena nodded a little sad and placed the suitcase into the trunk. She sighed, "I think that's the last of it."

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I don't like leaving Jeremy here. I don't care what he says or others say, he's my little brother and I hate leaving him here alone."

"Don't worry so much about him. He's not a little kid anymore and Matt will keep an eye on him. So Stefan won't be here much longer, but I'm sure that Damon won't let anything bad happen to Jeremy. Not if he wants to still have a chance with you. What's going on with the two of you, anyway?"

"I don't know. Now that my emotions have returned it's been weird. I said a lot of mean things and was pretty horrible to all of you. I know he doesn't care, but I do. The sire bond doesn't seem to be a problem anymore either. I love him, I know that, but I just want to spend this summer with my two best friends and not have to worry about anything boy related. Once we're back, we'll see. We have time."

Before Bonnie could say anything to that, a smiling Caroline came bouncing out of the house and threw her arms around her two best friends, "Are we ready to go?"

Elena and Bonnie nodded, but Caroline wasn't pleased with the lack of enthusiasm, "What's wrong? We're finally getting out of here and we're doing it together, just like we have always planned. A little more enthusiasm, ladies."

"Caroline's right, no more sad faces from this moment on." Elena smiled a real smile and excused herself to say goodbye to Jeremy and the rest who were still inside the house.

Thinking about what to do next, Jenna never noticed someone coming up behind her, "She's leaving, you better hurry."

Jenna turned around, startled. "You'd think as a vampire it should be harder for someone to sneak up on me."

Klaus shrugged, "I'm very accomplished when it comes to sneaking up on people."

He was mocking her and Jenna knew it, but she chose to ignore this. "What are you even doing here?"

"I wanted to give you something before I left. I've been watching you stand here for a while. Is there a reason why you're watching them instead of joining them?"

"I don't want to hide from them. I mean, this is all I wanted and I finally have it. I wanted to come back and be with my family again, but my family has changed. Elena is a vampire and Jeremy has made vampire hunting his new hobby. Their lives have changed and they need to figure out where to go from here."

"I guess you need to figure things out, too?" Klaus wasn't entirely sure if they were still talking about Elena and Jeremy or if Jenna wasn't talking about herself somehow.

"I'm not human anymore and until a week ago I have been a ghost stuck between this and the next world. It's a lot to process and it's different from what I thought it would be. I never thought about what it would mean to come back as a vampire."

Klaus listened patiently to her and turned thoughtful, "There'll be a lot to explain."

Jenna shrugged, "There is a lot to explain now, too. They'll get over it."

"So, no happy family reunion today?" Jenna shook her head and walked past Klaus back to the tree line. Klaus silently walked with Jenna through the forest for a while. She seemed to be deep in thought and he didn't want to disturb her. He knew she couldn't wait to have them back in her life, but it has been over a year since she died. A lot of things had happened since then. Maybe she was worried about something? He had really meant what he said earlier. There would be a lot to explain. Maybe she wasn't sure how to do that? He couldn't tell.

After a few more minutes of silence she abruptly turned to him and spoke, "I'm not scared."

Klaus smiled at her, "Of course not."

"I will go back and we'll be a happy family again, just not today. Maybe after the summer when Elena will be at college. I mean, what good is it to go back now? Elena would probably want to stay and that trip means everything to the girls. They had planned it since they started High School. They deserve to have it. After the summer will be a better time."

Jenna nodded once, more to assure herself than him and started to walk again, "When will you be leaving?"

"Tonight, unless something comes up again. You just never know in this town." Klaus fell back into stepped with Jenna, "What will you do? Stay? You might get noticed if you do."

"Actually, I haven't thought this entirely through yet." Jenna kept her eyes trained on the ground. Silence again. Klaus knew what he wanted her to do. He had become used to having Jenna around and he liked her. She made him feel things he hadn't felt in a long time. It wasn't exactly love or some ridiculous crush. Jenna wasn't afraid of him, she didn't back down and she always called him out on his bluffs. Klaus respected that. With someone else this might lead to less friendly encounters, but Jenna somehow got away with it. He wanted to be her friend and he thought they could manage that. Maybe they could manage to be more than just friends eventually, but to find out he would have to keep her with him.

"Have you ever been to New Orleans?" There it was. He had said it. He didn't say it in so many words, but it basically translated to _stay with me_ and from the way she smiled he was sure she knew that.

"I haven't and I guess it would be as good as any place." Both smiled at each other. It was settled. Then Jenna remembered Klaus' earlier words again, "Earlier you said you wanted to give something to me."

It took Klaus a moment to realize what she was talking about. "Right, I have something for you. This was supposed to be a parting gift, but I guess now it's simply a gift."

Klaus reached into his jeans pocket and stopped walking. He turned to Jenna and held his hand out to her. Jenna stared at the ring in his palm. It was a beautiful ring with a simple gold band and an emerald on top in the shape of a teardrop. Before Jenna could say anything, Klaus had grabbed her right hand and slid the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly.

"It's a new daylight ring. I thought this might be a better solution than having to be careful not to let my brother's ring slip off." Klaus slit Kol's ring from Jenna's thumb and pocketed it.

"You got me my own daylight ring?" Jenna was a little touched and didn't really know what to say. She spread her fingers and admired the ring. She had been thinking about this. She knew she couldn't hang on to Kol's ring forever, but she also didn't want to be stuck inside during the day. "Where did you get it? It's beautiful."

"I have acquired a number of things over the years. Properties, furniture, jewelry and so on. Why do you think I need such a big house? Also there might have been a witch who still owed me a favor. I thought this one suited you best. Do you like it?"

"Yes, thank you." She smiled at him again and he knew he would never get tired of it. Practically no one was still smiling at him like that. He had scared most people away, or kept them always at arm's length. Even though he and Jenna hadn't had the best of starts it hadn't stopped them from coming this far. Maybe it wasn't so bad to let one person in.

Jenna linked her arm with Klaus' as they resumed walking, "Now that we're spending more time together we should probably do something about this harsh exterior of yours."

Klaus laughed at that, "Excuse me, what harsh exterior?"

Jenna looked up at him, "All the 'I'm a hybrid, fear me' crap has to stop. That's not how you make friends."

Klaus laughed again, "And I'm sure you will tell me all about how to make friends the right way."

"Something to pass the time on our drive with." Jenna shrugged and both continued on in silence again. There was only one last thing that had Jenna a bit worried. She had seen what it does to people. She had even lived through it herself in a way. "You have to promise me one thing."

Klaus looked at her curious, "And what would that be?"

"I don't have the best track record when it comes to handling emotions. After watching Elena going through what she went through, I want you to promise me that you will never let me turn my humanity off."

The request caught Klaus somewhat off guard. Did she really think he was the best person to keep her in line? To have someone really trust him with something like that was new to him, but with Jenna he should've been used to it by now. She simply kept on surprising him.

A smile slowly spread over his face and made Jenna narrow her eyes, "What?"

"Nothing." Klaus put an arm around Jenna's waist and held on to her as he brought them both all the way back to his house with vampire speed.

**The End.**

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><p><strong>So I changed the way daylight rings work. Or can different people use them? I don't even know. It doesn't really matter. In this version rings aren't specific to people ;)<strong>

****I know this took forever, but to anyone who reads this story...THANK YOU SO MUCH! Every single review made me want to finish this even more.****


	16. Sequel

**I posted a new story: Life of Mine.**

**It's a sequel to "Ghost of Me" which follows Klaus and Jenna to New Orleans. There they will meet the rest of the Mikaelson's, Marcel, Sophie and the rest of the witches. There will be no hybrid-baby story, of course. Maybe not even a Haley, we'll see.**

**This is the prolog. The rest will be posted to the other story post.**

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><p><em>He had come here as fast as he could. Still, it hadn't been fast enough. Klaus knew it would be bad, but nothing had him prepared for the sight before him. The blond vampire was chained to a chair in the middle of the room. Around her was dried blood on the floor and on the wall behind her, not to mention a good amount of it was on her clothes. Empty <em>_syringes__ lay scattered on the floor and the hybrid thought he faintly smelled vervain in the air. Above her seemed to be some kind of window that could be shut with a metal door. No doubt this was used to torture the young vampire with sunlight._

_The woman's head in the chair hung low and she didn't move. Klaus approached her carefully, lifting her head to take a look at her face. When he saw that her face wasn't grey and covered in popped out veins, Klaus exhaled relieved. Her eyes were open, but lifeless. At least she wasn't dead._

"_Jenna, can you hear me?" She didn't react immediately. It took her a moment to focus her eyes. It appeared she only realized now that someone else was in the room with her. Her breathing became labored and she began to trash violently against the restraints that kept her in her place. _

"_Jenna, it's me." Klaus grabbed her face and made her look at him more clearly. Once she seemed to realize who he was, Jenna stopped trashing and went perfectly still instead. "You're ok, you're safe now."_

"_I can't do this anymore." Her voice wasn't louder than a whisper, but Klaus had caught it. The look on Jenna's face said it all. She was ready to give it all up. What the hell had they been doing to her? _

_Anger rose inside of Klaus. He knew that it had all been his fault. He had taunted Marcel, went after him and his so called kingdom. His own selfishness and need to be number one had once again caused nothing but pain and torment for the ones he cared about. Jenna had tried to stop him, never losing faith in him. Why couldn't he just listen to her, to anyone, for once?_

_And to make it even worse he realized what Jenna was about to do. How many times had he witnessed this before? How many times had he been the cause of it?_

„_Don't do this, Jenna." Klaus' pleading voice reached Jenna's ears as tears streamed down her face. The last couple of days had been torture, literally. She was just about done with this; she hadn't been made for this. Part of her wanted it to stop hurting, no matter what the cost. The other part of her was in complete agreement. _

"_It hurts too much, it's too much." Jenna began shaking slightly as more tears fell down her face._

_Klaus knelt down to her level and looked into her eyes. "Remember, you made me promise that I would never let you turn your emotions off. You know what it did to Elena. I know it hurts, but the pain is what keeps us human. Do you really want to become an unfeeling monster? That's not you, Jenna."_

_He knew the easiest way to stop her would be to compel her. Unfortunately, Jenna had been shot up with so much vervain that he would have to drain a good amount of her blood first and that would take too long. He didn't have that kind of time. She didn't have it either._

"_I don't care." Jenna's voice broke._

"_Jenna, don't!"_

_In a last desperate attempt he kissed her__._


End file.
